GULBAAJ, The Man Of The Match
Storyline:
The game of cricket and the life of a die-hard lover of the game, who ultimately turns out to be a loner, form the basis of this drama. Jahar Chandra Das, now a sixty five year old lower middle class Bengali is the central character of the play.
Jahar was an official of Chandpur Sporting, a second division cricket club in Kolkata. The club used to run under the patronage of Dharanidhar Dutta, a famous Bengali industrialist of yester years. Cricket was an addiction for Jahar. No body knows whether he ever played the game, but he used to derive maximum ego satisfaction in remaining as an associate of the game in this way. In the process, he neglected his family life largely and it was Roma, his wife, who worked hard and earned livelihood for the family. After the demise of Roma, Mahua their only daughter stepped into the footsteps of her mother and now she is the one who looks after the family.
The drama starts in the wake of the Cricket World Cup 2007. Chandpur Sporting has long ceased to exist. Dharanidhar Dutta, the patron has sold off all his properties in Kolkata and has shifted to London to spend remaining years with his family. Jahar is completely detached from the fields. Television is his only connection to the game of cricket. Jahar is now a loner.
Jahar’s existence is at stake. He is of no worth to the society. He feels irritated. Jahar takes solace in a make belief world. He spindles out fake stories of the past and tries to draw attention of the people. Since Jahar has never been associated with anything else but cricket, his stories also take the same route. Jahar weaves rosy pictures of the past and glorifies himself as a central character in all the happenings. In most of the cases, he is caught off guard. People laugh at him. Jahar gets desperate and frustrated. In a futile attempt to overcome his frustrations, Jahar gets involved in more of story making. To the world, he is a master of bluffs. Mahua is an exception to it. She is well aware of the fakeness of these stories, but somehow because of reasons unknown, she pampers Jahar a bit. Mahua turns out to be a big shelter for Jahar. Jahar does not want to loose her. Mahua wants to marry and settle down with Somnath, a local television mechanic. Jahar is against this idea and objects under different flimsy pretexts. His only focus is to retain his shelter, Mahua.
Life was moving on in this manner until the World Cup cricket arrived at doorsteps. Somnath, being an aspiring and ambitious person, wants to venture into the business world by selling televisions. He invests all that he had and takes a loan on high interest rate from Joginder, a local Punjabi businessperson. At the onset of the World Cup, business volumes take a leap but soon after the early exit of India, sales dip massively. Somnath is leftover with huge paid up stocks and a big loan amount on his shoulders. Mahua and Somnath are highly depressed with the situation and run frantically to make some way out. Ironically, Jahar is very happy. He is now sure that Mahua and Somnath cannot make a joint living in the future.
Then the drama takes a turn. Jahar comes to know about an honest man in Somnath. He also becomes aware of the fact that Somnath was also a sportsman and just like him, an ardent lover of cricket too. This kindles a different feeling towards Somnath in the minds of Jahar. He understands the difficulty of the situation. He is helpless. He has no savings of his own. He also has no connections to help Somnath. He feels sorry but his hands are tied.
Sagarneel Dutta, the youngest son of Late Dharanidhar Dutta comes to Kolkata. He has a plan to make a documentary film on the life of his great father. He chooses Jahar to speak about the spirited presence of his father in the cricket fields. Jahar readily starts weaving lengths of rosy recapitulations. Mahua objects. She knows that the recapitulations of Jahar are false and thus she stands in between to prevent any sort of humiliation. Sagarneel Dutta is in soup. He desperately wants Jahar to speak high about his father, as the same will contribute a lot towards the global image building exercise of the entire ‘Dutta Group of Business’. He is ready to pay a substantial amount for the same.
Jahar bargains with Sagarneel. He takes chance of Mahua’s absence during working hours and attends the shooting. He receives a lump some amount for this and thus Somnath gets rid of the debts. Somnath and Mahua tie the nuptial knot.
The last scene of the play turns out to be extremely dramatic. It is the day on which the documentary film is going to be on television. Shortly before broadcasting, the film has been premiered in a local theatre, but since Jahar is keen on seeing himself for the first time in television, the whole family has accepted the proposal of watching it from the cosyness of their residence. It is a sort of festive mood out there. Jahar’s attitude is quite similar to that of a celebrity. Everybody starts laughing at him. When confronted for his attitude, Jahar drops a bomb. The interview that he has given about Late Dharanidhar Dutta contains extremely debatable issues like betting, involvement of cricketers in betting, etc.
Everybody is stunned. They do not know what to do. Knowing the habits of Jahar, neither they can believe his words nor can they ignore it because of its logical presentation. Moreover, they are deeply concerned about the aftermath of such an interview.
Jahar is unconcerned. He clearly states that every word spoken out there is a lie. At the same time, he is proud of his diplomatic presentations. He has placed every debatable issue in such a way so that it causes extreme reactions without any harm to anybody. He thanks this to his long habit of story making.
Mahua feels dejected. She feels mean to know that her livelihood has been built on a castle of lies.
Jahar turns furious. He questions Mahua about the core understanding of truth and lies. To him, “when it’s a last ball game, no player should watch the ball and play. He just needs to come out, strike the ball as hard as possible, and then murmur within. The ball should clear the ropes. The ball should clear the ropes”.
When existence is the demand of the day, all black and white borders take a backseat. Darwinism is the ultimate truth of life. We all struggle for existence.
Uniqueness in format:
For the first time in the 212 year old history of Bengali theatre, cricket, the ‘unofficial national game of the country’, forms the basis.
This drama involves blend of cinematographic presentation and stage acting. Cricket commentaries and popular bollywood tunes have been used as back ground scores. A five minute long film presentation is an integral part of this play. Strategic and abstract designing of the sets and lights gives a feel of a cricket stadium on stage. Distinctively designed scene shifting patterns also add value to the production.
Gulbaaj- The Man Of The Match is the first ever Indian Black Comedy on cricket. Launched on the 8th day of February its a blockbuster with 47 shows till date. The writer and director of the play, Sri Sohan Bandopadhyay was awarded with the Satyen Mitra Puraskar 2008 (awarded to the best Bengali script which was produced within the timeframe of a particular year) and recently the renowned theatre organisation, Padatik, has decided to promote the play in their extremely prestigious 'Buildwell theatre'. The production has earned extreme repute from the critics and the audience from all corners of the country.
GULBAAJ-THE MAN OF THE MATCH
starring Swapan Roy, Sohan Bandopadhyay, Mousumi Sengupta, Sandip Dey, Subrata Bandopadhyay, Enakshi Sen, Ayanangshu Chattopadhyay and others.
Lighting Design: Sudip Sanyal
Set Design - Sanchayan Ghosh
Music - Swapan Bandopadhyay
Projection- Shadow
Make-up- Rabi Ghosh
Play & Direction- Sohan Bandopadhyay
Production- NAT-RANGA
