Sudipta Bhawmik's "Natak Samagra"

NATAK  SAMAGRA
(Anthology of Plays)

By

Sudipta Bhawmik

Foreword by Ashok Mukhopadhyay

Edited by Satya Bhaduri

Published by Saptarshi Prakashan, Kolkata Ph: 9830371467

Price: $20.00

Available online at:
http://www.alibris.com/booksearch.detail?invid=10365798844&noworks=1&que...

About the book:
“Natak Samagra” is a collection of seven plays in Bengali by Sudipta Bhawmik.  Although each play tells a different story, they all  have a common thread  - they tell the stories of our  Indian American existence, with all the struggles to fit in, and the struggles to reconcile with our past.  The plays in this collection has been staged in various cities in USA and India and has also been published in major theater journals in India and have received wide critical and audience acclaim.  This collection includes the following plays:

Phera (The Return)
Set in a suburb of the great city of Calcutta in India during the late seventies and early eighties, “The Return”  deals with the eternal struggle which every immigrant in USA has to go through in order to balance between the strong attachment to their home land and the economic and social demands of life. The play tells the story of a young immigrant man, whose family is dependent on his dollar remittances, decides to go back to his country and faces strong resistance from his loved ones.

Kaalsuddhi (The Redemption)
This play is about a person named Subimal who, once an active Maoist communist, had to flee his own country and come to America in search of a new life. Although Subimal did find a new life for himself, his past always haunted him, a past which he had always kept a deep secret. Suddenly, one day this secret starts to reveal itself to his son Somu from a long lost diary. Somu, a Harvard junior, is extremely curious to know the details of his father’s past, wants to know more about the Naxalite movement. But he never could have guessed the kind of murky and deep waters he is getting into. Subimal tried to prevent the inevitable, but his failure to do so ultimately leads him to his redemption.

Durghatana (Accident)
A young Indian American narrates his life story to a total stranger in a rest area by the highway after his car crashes in a  disastrous accident.

Ron
Ron (Ronobir) Mitra, son of a Bengali immigrant family, is a member of the US Army National Guard and is currently deployed in Iraq. Ron 's parents, Animesh and Shanti, although not happy with Ron's decision to join the US Army, respected Ron's wishes to serve his nation. However, Ron's deployment to active duty in Iraq has been a constant source of tension and anxiety. On the day of the play, at a small get together at Animesh's place, Surojit Biswas, a writer and journalist from Kolkata challenges Animesh and his guests about their loyalty, their beliefs and their fundamental moral values. The party rapidly goes into a tailspin with each character exposing their secret wars that they have been fighting all along.

Satyameva  (Truth Only)
Sanjoy, a young software professional, has arrived in the "land of opportunity" for just over six months and works for a

software body shopping company "InterSoft" owned and operated by Bill (a Bengali American living in the States for over thirty years.) On the day of the play Bill fires Sanjoy and asks him to go back to India. Sanjoy, however, is not happy with this decision and refuses to oblige. He informs Bill that he is not going to return to India under any circumstances. He states that returning to India is synonymous to signing a death warrant for himself. He cannot subject himself to such a grave risk. And to justify himself, and to win his ultimate motive, he has to make a choice between truth or deceit.

Musical Chair
Five women of different ages and social backgrounds get into a game of musical chair. They circle around the chairs with the sole objective of winning their prize seats at any cost. But when the music stops, one must leave the game. But the game keeps going on and on….

Taconic Parkway
Manasij, a veteran Bengali screen actor is visiting USA with a theater group to stage some shows in multiple cities. During
his first stop in New York, he is hosted by Dipak and Sharika at their multi-million dollar mansion in upstate New York.
The enthusiastic host, Dipak, expresses his desire to make a film with Manasij as the hero and their daughter Pom as the heroine. But Sharika objects to this proposal vehemently. She would never let Pom take part in this dream project of Dipak. Manasij tries to mediate, but soon realizes that he is being pulled into a dark vortex of suspicion and animosity that was carefully camouflaged by the opulence and the veneer of apparent happiness of an affluent Indian American family.

Here is what some of the critics and theater personalities had to say about Sudipta’s plays:

‘Ron' is one of the most well written and well constructed plays I have seen in recent times. While watching the play,
Sudipta's craftsmanship kept on reminding me of none other than J.B. Pristley. Craft apart, artistically also its content, dialogues, characterization, and most importantly its universal relevance, appealed to me most. – Bibhas Chakraborty, Theater Personality, Calcutta

“At another level, Ron recalls the anti-war drama of the Vietnam era, like David Rabe’s. As Ron’s close ones wait for his promised phone call during the course of an evening
party, Bhawmik explores through very mature dialogue their varying attitudes to loyalty, to the country, to the family, to
friends, and even to one’s spouse.”
Ananda Lal, Drama Critic, The Telegraph, Calcutta

"Satyameva is a very well written play – the twists and turns are very well crafted, in the same league as a Peter Shaffer
play.”
- Bibhas Chakraborty, Theater Personality, Calcutta

“Sudipta Bhawmik’s plays, especially “Taconic Parkway”, remind me of the plays by the Nobel prize winning American playwright Eugene O’Neal.”
– Gayatri Gamarsh, Theater Critic, Ananda Sambad, New Jersey

"Sudipta is a new voice in Bengali Theater!" - Ashok Mukhopadhyay, Theater Personality, Theater Workshop, Kolkata

About the Playwright:

Sudipta Bhawmik is a bilingual playwright who writes his plays in Bengali and English and sometimes both.  Sudipta has received formal training in theatrical arts  in Calcutta, India, under the tutelage of legendary theater workers and playwrights like Sombu Mitra, Tripti Mitra, Saoli Mitra, Mohit Chattopadhyay and others.   He has also participated in workshops with the famous playwright and director Badal Sircar.  In USA he had the privilege of working with the celebrated theater director Ashok Mukhopadhyay from Calcutta. Sudipta’s Bengali plays have been staged all across USA as well as by professional theater companies of India.  Several of his plays have been published in prestigious theater journals in India.  His plays has been translated to other Indian languages like Hindi and Marathi.
Sudipta is also and actor and director and has staged several plays in and around the New York metropolitan area and New  Jersey.   He is also a blogger (nynjbengali.com) and cartoonist.