Hope, dreams and desires have always been some of the favourite subjects of theatre directors. The question — what happens to some who are lucky to fulfill their goals in life and how few react when they realise that destiny has something else in store for them, was the theme of the play by Neel Chaudhuri.
Taramandal is based on Satyajit Ray’s short story Patol Babu Filmstar deals with the problems faced by the struggling actors.
Though the subject required an in-depth and serious approach, but Chaudhuri presented it with a humorous twist. The viewers literally laughed their lungs out during the play. The multi-act play revolved around Patol Babu, the lead character. “It was a challenging job to retain Ray’s original story and concentrate on just one character, Patol Babu.
I had to extend the entire narration as my script required more characters. When you need to reinterpret the story by a great person like Ray, one needs to be extremely careful. I knew I was taking a risk when I decided to incorporate some of my ideas to the play, but then one has to think out-of-the-box to stand apart,” said the director.
The play used three languages — English, Hindi and Bengali. Whenever the conversation revolved around the lead, it was Bengali and as the story moved on to the elite section, English was used. “After extending the narration of the play it was difficult for me to present it in single language.
The characters come from different background and have to portray the role of budding actors from across the country so they need to communicate in different languages,” explained Chaudhuri.
The direction style and the subject itself clearly bring out the love of cinema that Chaudhuri has in his heart. He took inspiration from Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There. “I chose it because in the movie Bob Dylan’s role was also divided in different characters,” he said.
It was definitely not easy for Chaudhuri to come up with the perfect act. “We worked for almost 24 hours a day as the play involved a lot of editing and rehearsals. I went to Mumbai and Delhi, met few aspiring actors to give a realistic approach to this play,” said Chaudhuri.
The play included actors like Andrew Hoffland, Bikram Ghosh, Kriti Pant, Mallika Taneja, Neel Debdutt Paul and Tarun Sharma. Hoffland played the role of 50-year-old Patol Ray and was excellent as a lead. His expressions were perfect to express the happiness that he receives when he gets his first role in a small film.
Chaudhuri commented on the relevance of this play in today’s world and said, “I read this story quite long ago and just loved it. But I was never aware of its relevance until I met few struggling actors in Mumbai and Delhi who are ready to do almost everything for a break in daily soaps or small budget films. I found that Patol Ray is present in India’s every city and small town.”
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