Man is the only living species that can think and is considered to be the most intelligent of all. Man is a social animal, a gregarious butterfly that shifts from one cluster to another, thus forging new bonds with different communities, races, religions, castes and creed.The other creatures, insects or organisms find it hard to fight out humans under the vast firmament. The latter has time and again vanquished the rest to constitute his own sustenance over the terra-firma. It’s all in the name of survival instincts.

Over the ages, man with his perpendicular vertebral column has outsmarted the other kind upon this earth. However, man is gradually losing his spine and backbone, his power of judgement, reasoning and rationality in the face of crisis. Desperation overrides his conscience and the analytical brain. If the degeneration of human society with its prevalent laxity of morals continue for long, then can man save his present plight and future progeny from its inevitable decadence? “He now lives a mechanical life that chases after name, fame and moolah and shows a sharp tendency to take him back to his salad days of gory brutality and barbarism. But the future is to be preserved for the well-being of posterity. Can man prevent this ruin, seemingly looming large ahead of his eyes?” asks ace mime master Kamal Naskar. “That is something we all need to find answers to,” says his wife, Dr Subhra Sanyal, yet another gifted mime artist. Taking cues from this line of thought, the modern man finds his way to The Brute, a mime production. And based on this thought-provoking subject, the two distinguished artistes on Kolkata theatrescape will perform a silent-act, come March 4, at the Sisir Mancha auditorium. The show will be organised under the aegis of Modern Mime Centre. The credits for the story, script, composition and direction go to Kamal Naskar himself.Ironically, the history of human race bears testimony to a man’s incredible feat on this soil. In fact, he has used his wits as a weapon to break free of his aboriginal fetters to emerge as a modern urban Homo Sapien. From the primitive stage of “stone age” and cave-existence, man transformed himself into a civilised force. From the fang-n-claw expression of butchery, man learnt to draw, speak, read, write and ignite fire from the flint stone. This flickering flame produced a ray of hope and glimmer of enlightenment. Slowly but steadily, man succeeded in refining his rough edges and converted himself into a polished city-bred gentleman. Rawness disappeared, giving way to sophistication. Man has struggled hard to triumph against all odds on his way. The evolution of science holds a testament to man’s greatest invention on the globe. And the entire planet is grateful to man’s unprecedented discoveries and experimental finds. “But there’s a flip side to every coin. Now, human beings have turned prospective monsters in the closet who show signs of greed, lust, bloodthirsty tyranny and ruthlessness at every heat of the moment. Their fits of aggression in the wrong spirit of assertion have taken a volt face via which man-to-man terror and baying for one another’s blood have surfaced to the fore. So is man’s refinement a mask over his frigid rigour? Does he wear a garb of guile in the name of goodness?” Naskar says.

Pramita Bose