Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, Nandikar, and the World: Staging World Literature in Bengali. Issue 3 (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Roy, Souradeep
• Is Part Of: South Asian review. Volume 41:Issue 3/4(2020)
• Page Start: 316
• Page End: 335
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: World literature -- Anton Chekhov -- postcolonial theater and performance -- theater translation -- Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay; Indic literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; India -- Civilization -- Periodicals; South Asia -- Civilization -- Periodicals; South Asia -- Languages -- Periodicals; South Asian literature -- Periodicals; South Asian literature; Language and languages; Civilization; Indic literature; Literature; South Asia; India; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 891.1
• DOI: 10.1080/02759527.2020.1840205
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0275-9527

Abstract

Abstract: Through an analysis of the Begali playwright, director and actor, Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay's adaptaton of Anton Chekhov's The Dangers of Tobacco as Tamakhu Sheboner Opokarita, this essay analyzes a translation practice in Bengali theater known as rupantor . Unlike anubaad (Bengali for translation), rupantor implies a departure from the original. The basis for these departures is explained through Walter Benjaminâ's idea of "translatability". Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay introduced his own realist acting style to Bengali audiences who were accustomed to seeing heightened melodramas. By veering away from long melodramas which favored a single actor, rupantor enabled a more democratic environment where new communities of performances and spectators were formed. These communities include both the makers, who, collectively, started the group theatre movement from the 1950s, and the audiences. They could be located around new theater houses such as Muktangan Rangalaya, and as reading publics who read a variety of new theater journals such as Theatre edited by Samik Bandyopadhyay and Pabitra Sarkar. In the larger discussion on world literature, this paper argues that the world always manifests in a local space. Decolonization in Indian theater has so far been described through the "theater of roots" movement. Here, I argue that "rupantor" of major dramas of the world inaugurated a new way of decolonizing the Bengali stage.