The tale of old culture and traditions filled with unethical acts ruining the peace of the society was told through a Bengali play — Bisad Kal.
Adored with huge plot, wonderful stage craft and impulsive lighting effects, the play was directed by Probir Guha and was wondrously performed by the artists of Alternative living Theatre, Kolkata. The play marked the second day of the West Bengal Mahotsav. The play was performed at Antarang Hall of Bharat Bhavan here on Thursday.
The play is said to be the blend of Rabindranath Tagore’s Visarjan and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Guha magnificently blended both the plays creating a masterpiece commenting over the conservative old cultures and traditions which are like a black dot over the society. In this narrative play, Guha threw light over the tradition of ‘sacrificing animals’ on a particular day of the week to impress the gods. The play opens up with introducing Tripura Kingdom, where the senior priest of the temple makes a sacrifice of the animals. This scene was narrated as, “As the sacrifice took place the Gomati become red with the blood of the animals.”
The animal belonged to a small child of the village and as the sacrifice was done, the child questioned the King that why his animal was killed so brutallyIJ The boy asks the king to have a look at the river which was all blooded. The king then announces that no sacrifice rituals will be performed from now.
This was the time when the ego of the senior priest Raghupati was hurt. Raghupati was against this rule and wanted to continue with the tradition. He tells the king that he (king) might be the ruler of the kingdom but he (Raghupati) is the king of the temple and he will not allow anybody to rule his piece of land. A heated conversation takes place between the two. Then the priest plans a conspiracy against the king. The priest tells the king that goddess is angry with this act of his and she now wants the king’s sacrifice.
The play ends with the heroic act of king’s son who understood the conspiracy and sacrificed his life for his father. This is how the play ends. Guha’s main motive is the active participation of the audience in his plays and this play managed to do so. The audience watched the play with rapt attention.