They say all the choices we make are born out of either of two primal emotions: love or fear. What happens, though, when we begin creating something out of love but then the fear of failing is what sustains it? Baranday Shobder Bhir (Words Throng My Verandah)—Bengaluru-based playwright and director Suman Chakraborty’s Bengali-language play set for its maiden production this weekend, explores this very question—albeit through the lens of poetry. Presented by Ekalavya Performing Arts and Picture Wicture Productions, the story follows Paromita (played by Ritabrita Chattakhandi), a sales executive who is quite mediocre at… well, everything.
The 30-something woman not only struggles with failure and constant criticism at work, but also finds herself trapped in an abusive marriage. While her son Jojo seems to be the only reason she finds herself toiling against time, one day, she takes to writing poetry. An avid reader of poetry, Paromita starts writing to share pieces of her tumultuous life that she finds unable to share with anyone else. However, when she publishes her poetry on a whim, the plot takes a sharp turn. Her poems garner rapid readership and widespread appreciation very quickly, imbuing her with a strange sense of competence that she never knew she had. It’s then that she finds herself in a crossroad between her craft and fame. Does she step into the spotlight and risk losing her honesty as an artiste? Or does she choose to remain in the shadows and continue being her truest self ? The play takes the audience on an unusual quest to find the answers.
What could’ve inspired the genesis of a story like this? Suman, who is also a poet, tells us a personal reflection that nudged him to write the play. “Very few read poetry anymore because we’ve made the act of reading poetry very elitist. We’ve created a culture where the best poetry is said to be the ones that are the most difficult to understand, thereby driving people away from the form,” he says. “Today, if you go to a publisher with a bunch of poems, the most likely response you get is, ‘No one reads poems these days,’ and that can really hurt a poet. I went through this myself and that became the inspiration for this play. I built a protagonist who writes poetry that even a lay person can understand,” he adds.
Being inspired from his real life, Suman very consciously chose a woman as his protagonist. The reason? Lack of representation of women in poetry. The playwright wanted to show that not all celebrated poets are men. In fact, given their social standpoint privilege, more female writers should choose poetry, is what Suman believes.
In a 2021 interview, Irish writer Sally Rooney had opened up about how, when writers become famous, they’re sealed off, “from normal life by dinner parties and book launches”. Baranday Shobder Bhir also deals with this conflict that creators face between their art and the eventual fame that it brings them — and not just the pomp around fame. “Once you find a lot of fame, it can very well happen that you’re expected to create the same type of art again and again. That might make you lose the honesty with which you began to create art in the first place,” Suman says.
This affinity towards the avant-garde trickles down to the costume design of Dr Asmita Sengupta as well. Unlike the usual practice of using costume changes to denote progression in linear time, the characters don’t change costumes unless there’s a significant change in their emotions. Taking inspiration from paintings of Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo and Amrita Sher-Gil, the colour palette follows the moods of the characters.
Every mood has an assigned sound to it. Such as for sombre mood, the cello has been used. The songs used range from Rabindrasangeet to Mehdi Haasan’s ghazals, albeit with restraint. Music is used just minimally, only to accentuate poetry. speaking of which, a total of eight poems have been used in the play, all written by the playwright.
In dealing with so many complex themes, is there one thought that the director wants the audience to leave with? “The thought I want the audience to leave with is: ‘Why can’t I write poetry?’ I want the audience to think. With the boom of AI and social media, people have forgotten to take some time out every day to just… think,” says suman, calling curtains on our conversation.
INR 400. September 20, 3.30 pm & 7.30 pm. At Jagriti Theatre, Ramagondanahalli.
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