Tryst with a legacy of Bengali theatre

 Gorur Garir Headlight- at the kolkata comedy carnival

Bengali theatre has long donned the hat of being elitist - the distinction of mass and class long being its associate. There are however exceptions, some exquisitely delightful like Gorur garir Headlight. I had planned for long to watch this one finally managing to attend its 1205th (ya and this is not a typing error!) show today at the kolkata comedy carnival at Madhusudan Mancha.

the play dates back to 1971 when it was first staged under the aegis of Saroj Ray , its late director and the man behind this mindless yet masterly caper! Since then the play has been staged continuallt making it the longest running play in the present gamut of bengali theatre. And I must say iot was a pleasant astonishment that I shared witha few others today to witness a packed house for this age old production!

Gorur garir Headlight as the name suggests is about incongruity and discrepancy. "Bibbhrat" in bengali would be the most appropriate word to describe its actions. a widowed businessman decides to produce a play and paves the way for hell to break loose with hilarious consequences. His sister-in-law conducting a research on love, proves to be the ideal catalyst to bring about confusions and chaos in the already muddled proceedings. The play too which the characters are rehearsing for, touted as a social drama (!) is a jigsaw of historical characters as diverse as aurangzeb and sirajudaulla set in the present age! each character has its own idiosyncracy, from the anglophile director who translates his every sentence in atrocious english to one who stammers like he never would complete to one who lives in the melodramatic worls of jatras and always speals so to one who can only hear out of his right ear but never admits that! 

This ensemble cast creates situations which successfully drives the audience to splits making them laugh mercilessly throughout the play. A few scenes, to me, do drag like the second or third scene involving the two taporis and Hotat( a character). also the humour at times seem forced. But these kept aside the play inded excels. Gorur garir headlight is very unpretentious in its approach. The prologue to the play justifies and announces that laughter is in scarcity and hence they are here to make us laugh - a feat well accomplished. The baggage of message never burdens the play to slacken its pace. though humour and satire interweave, the later doesn't predominate to take away the innocence which indeed is a welcome relief as is the absence of vulgarity. 

With a thousand nights over and still going  strong GGH is indeed worth a watch - for the difference in perspective it brings to Bengali drama but most importantly for its merit.Watch it if you love slapstick, if you don't even better - watch it to know that it counts...and sells!! ;-)


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