How a friend's untimely death led Arna Mukhopadhyay to write his solo play, Abohoman

Actor-director Arna Mukhopadhyay was thinking of writing a play about the changing situations around him, but wasn't quite sure. He was saving up a few poems by his friend Soumik to incorporate them in a poetic play, when unfortunate news shook him. His dear poet friend was suffering from the last stage of liver cirrhosis, without even having a drop of alcohol, and there was no other option but a liver transplant.

Arna started writing the play, Abohoman, after his friend passed away during Kali Puja in 2025.

Arna Mukhopadhyay shares what went ino creating his solo play, Abohoman

We asked the actor-director what else went into creating Abohoman. "Honestly, a solo play, that too of 2.5 hours, wasn't something I had on my must-do list. But yes, I wanted to collaborate with my friend Soumik and create something poetic. What we ended up creating was more like a play-play, a world of illusions. What I was looking forward to was very real, very intimate," Arna said.

"But that hour-long conversation with my friend on Dwadoshi (12th day of Durga Puja), had penetrated me so much that I wanted to write something where his and my life collide at a point. He passed away a few days after Kali Puja, and I penned this dark piece, named after my friend's poetry book."

Arna is staging the solo act for the fourth time on February 23, at the Academy of Fine Arts. However, 2.5 hours of solo play is no easy feat. Arna says that the toll the performance takes on his physical health is quite something, especially because he hasn't performed even a 30-min solo act before. "But when i started rehearsing for the same, and I spoke words that are mine, it didn't feel anything extra," he added.

Arna also shared how each theatre impacts the scope of interaction between actors and the audience. "In a proscenium theatre like Academy of Fine Arts, messages reach differently from one person to another. As actors, we always try to reach and touch the most numbers of people possible," he remarked.

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