The play, Parash Pathar, concluded with the message that instead of looking for quick-fix solutions and obtaining status and prestige overnight, we should identify our inner strengths
Parash Pathar, is a hugely popular Bengali short story, penned by Rajshekhar Basu (1880-1960) — who was a famous writer, professional chemist and lexicographer. Primarily known for his comic and satirical fiction, Parashuram is considered the greatest Bengali humourist of the 20th century.
In this story — made into an award-winning film of the same name by Satyajit Ray in 1958 — Paresh Chandra Dutt, a small-time bank-clerk, attends a charity match on a rainy day and chances upon a small, round stone in the game’s park. First he ignores it as a marble, but soon discovers that it turns metal into gold.
He decides impromptu to take a few decrepit cannon-balls from the city dump, turn them into gold and sell them. This ploy makes him quickly rich. As a chauffeur drives him back home from the dump, the car pulls into the drive-way of a glittering mansion that he buys later as his new home. He has now a new young secretary, Priyatosh and gets invited to a cocktail party: his first.
At the party, Dutt gets tipsy before getting involved in a drunken brawl. When asked to leave peremptorily, he turns an iron figurine into gold. The unusual incident earns him headlines in the Kolkata press. Soon, Mr and Mrs Dutt are taken to a police station for interrogation and the police discovers that the desperate Priyatosh — who was entrusted with the stone — has meanwhile swallowed the solid. The medical specialist informs the police inspector that Priyatosh is, in fact, digesting the stone! Soon after Dutt hears of this, he notices the golden objects turning back into iron. The Dutts, now chastened, happily rejoin their servant and Priyatosh at their old, impoverished milieu.
Parash Pathar, presented by Rangaloke from Kolkata, situates the above story in today’s environment of mobiles, laptops and social networks, where the ambience of technology bedazzles the common man and the hankering after the shining “gold” — the metaphor meant literally — does not seem beyond reach. Bars after gold bars pile on and then the source becomes known, but it is too late to lay hands upon. The illusion — again the metaphor intended — is dissolved, with all the gold becoming iron. An interview with the director:
What are the issues exposed in your playIJ
In the context of the unbelievable greed of common people and the rat-race for acquiring wealth and social status, the idea of social bonding is at stake, with the prospect of leaving society insecure and in disarray. I have tried to attempt, through the form of theatre, to sensitise the viewers in restoring essential humility, which would ultimately result in mental piece and social harmony.
What does the elusive philosopher’s stone stand forIJ
let me submit that it’s not elusive but real. Just that it exists in our heart. In stead of running for quick-fix solutions and obtaining status and prestige overnight, we look within and awake our inner purity and peace and then spread the message.
But why is gold used as metaphorIJ
This is because of its rarity value. Perhaps gold is the most useless metal on earth; it is not used in any manufacturing industry as raw material like other metals. If today women reject gold from jewellery, the price of gold would come down tomorrow, because its utility would vanish.
On stage, your actors display impeccable sense of timing…
I am a very liberal director and a great believer in improvisation. My characters have freely interacted on the rehearsal-floor and developed the spontaneity of their dramatic interaction.