TAJ�s 44th Theatre Fest an endeavor to keep theatre alive

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur: Theatre Artistes of Jamshedpur (TAJ) has never shied away from its endeavor to propagate theatre and theatre artistes through at least two generations. In fact, it may not be too far from the truth to state that it is the only amateur team that has continued to evolve as a platform for Bengali theatre giving many a shot in the arm to serious performers and technicians who add to the character of a play.

Tushar Dasgupta, a multi-faceted actor and adroit director has covered the various ups and downs of this most difficult form of the performing media and it his experience that has lifted many a promising talent to the pedestal of a star performer behind the stage or before it.

The TAJ organized 44th episode of its Theatre Festival at Rabindra Bhawan speaks miles of this pursuit in the realms of theatronics. Veteran Tushar�s latest directorial venture, �Sher Afgan,� is another stamp of this veteran�s visualization abilities. TAJ opened this edition of the Fest with this play which extracts the best of a performer�s ability.

Santu Banerjee lives up to the faith bestowed on him and gives a telling performance. Not to be left behind are the other actors Ashok Ghosh, Jaidip Ghosh, Sujoy Roy, Goutam Banerjee, Uday Bhanu Ghosh, Sujit Bagchi, Tapas Majumdar, Sanjiv Sen, Mita Ganguly and Pakhi Roy.
The second presentation of the first evening was by Kalapi Natya Manch from Kolkata. The play, �Ektu Shukh,� is a delicate story of a so-called modern age written by acclaimed dramatist Chandan Sen.

Directed by Shantanu Nath, the play revolves around a homemaker who steps out in quest of a job to sustain her family. The humiliations she has to suffer at the workplace by people who want her for �other purposes� is still bearable but the suspicion of her own family members on her character is painful. This is a persistent face of even the modern middle class family.

In an unofficial chat, TAJ joint secretary Santu Banerjee echoed the observation of this Avenue Mail scribe when he stated, �We are persevering with our effort to keep theatre alive at a time when theatre units are gradually dwindling. It has always been our effort to propagate theatre and theatre artistes so that we can uphold the mirror of today�s pains and pangs of modern times.�