When the magic of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay was spread musically on stage, the city theatre buffs experienced an enchanting performance. The celebrated novel by Chattopadhyay Parineeta was presented as the musical drama at Shaheed Bhavan on Wednesday.
The musical drama was beautifully presented with recorded music, simple backdrop and highly versatile acting. Directed by Anvesh Kose, the play was splendidly performed by the artists of Ink on Canvas theatre troupe, Bhopal.
Parineeta takes place at the turn of the 20th century during the Bengal Renaissance. The story centers orphan girl, Lalita, who lives with the family of her uncle Gurucharan. Gurucharan has five daughters and the expense of paying for their weddings has impoverished him. He is forced to take a loan from his neighbour, Nabin Roy, by mortgaging a plot of land with him.
The two neighbouring families share a very cordial relationship. Nabin Roy's wife, Bhuvaneshwari, dotes on the orphan Lalita and showers love upon her. Roy's younger son Shekharnath has a joking, bantering relationship with Lalita. The young girl adores him like her mentor, and for some strange reasons, ratifies and accepts his possessive attitude towards her.
Things change when Girish enters Shekhar’s and Lalita’s life. Girish is Manorama’s rich brother who lives in Britain. He helps Gurucharan in paying the debts and also assists him in finding her a perfect match.
These situations seemed to stir the instinctual passions of Shekhar and somewhat Lalita for each other and one evening before Shekhar's tour to the west, the duo secretly gets married with a dramatic exchange of garlands formed of marigolds. After this various changes takes place in Lalita’s and Shekhar’s life. In the confusion of love, religion, wealth and status difference, Shekhar and Lalita’s life gets upside down.Crossing all the difficulties, how the couple gets united formed the rest of the story. “In one hour long play I tried to showcase the twists of relationships as I wanted audience to feel the emotions and relationships,” said Anvesh.With eight songs, the play was brilliantly staged and was well received by the audience.