Features & Articles

Like a candle in the wind
Article written by Rina Mukherji

A grandiose musical, with live music, dialogues and vocal in true operatic style. Performers moving about while keeping with the demands of a professional stage. Nothing amiss, indeed. Except that, a closer look leads one to discover nearly all the performers are visually challenged.

The only one of its kind in the country, the Shyambazar Blind Opera (or, as it is more popularly called the Calcutta Blind Opera) was born out of a chance encounter between noted theatre luminary Rudraprasad Senguptas Nandikar and the Calcutta Blind School in 1994. Those days, Nandikar was working with Children At Risk on a Ford Foundation project, In Search of Childrens Theatre. Nandikar had just finished a play with street children-Halla, when they were approached by the then head of the Calcutta Blind School to produce a play on the occasion of the institutions centenary celebrations. Since I was handling the direction for the project, the responsibility of staging the play fell on me, says Subhashis Gangopadhyay, Director of the Opera.

The play that resulted out of the effort-Joto Doorei Jaayi (However far I go) with students from Classes VI to X of the Calcutta Blind School was a precursor of many novel experiments to come. For the students, it was an experience to cherish. Many of them were acting for the first time with celebrated theatre professionals. It was an opportunity to interact with the larger world, and to realize their potential talent. Many approached the Nandikar professionals to express their desire to become part of a theatre group exclusively created for them.

It was a learning experience for Subhashis Gangopadhyay and his compatriots from Nandikar too. I was amazed with their sense of sound and touch, their movements and their keenness to learn. It also inspired them to initiate and to explore a cultural platform for the visually challenged. As Nandikar officially moved away from the venture with the end of the Ford Foundation, Subhasis Gangopadhyay, light designer Ashoke Pramanick, stage designer Debashis Choudhury and academician-activist Prashanto Chattopadhyay joined hands to work towards a theatre to empower the visually challenged.

In 1996, a tie-up was organized with the National School of Drama to train interested youngsters for a workshop. It was out of this workshop that the first lot of visually challenged artistes were selected to form the Opera.

There are certain golden rules that every Blind Opera production adheres to, in addition to keeping itself open to improvisation and experimentation. There is no recorded music here, or if used, it is done sparingly. Live music is the hallmark of every Blind Opera production, and a surfeit of instruments and singing is utilized here. The reasons are obvious, as Gangopadhyay points out, The impairment of vision has equipped these youngsters with a very keen sense of hearing. Music here not only serves to entertain the audience and embellish the narrative; it serves as a guide to the artistes and directs them to their respective positions.

The artistes here are truly a mixed lot, hailing from different backgrounds and accomplished in various disciplines. Pallab Haldar comes from a family of mountaineers. A keen climber himself, Pallab could not be deterred by the dimming of his eyesight through Retinitis Pigmentosa. He took to the hills when he was 14 years of age, and by the time he was in his teens, he had already climbed Sandakphu, Zongdi (Sikkim), Har ki Dun (near Dehradun) He also completed a mountaineering course at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling in 1994 even as he attended college. He completed his graduation in English Literature, when a fellow mountaineer-friend informed him about the Shyambazar Blind Opera having been formed in 1996.

Pallab attended one of the rehearsals merely out of curiosity-only to get hooked for life. Today, he is an actor in the troupe, and just as enthusiastic as the rest of the members. What is more, the occasional rhyme he composed during his schooldays has become a regular passion, in the charged creative environment he now dwells in.

Unlike Pallab, Saurav Bose has had some initial exposure to theatre in his school-the Laban Hrad Vidyapith in eastern Kolkata where he had acted in a few plays. The atmosphere there was such that I was encouraged to act, notwithstanding my deteriorating eyesight. (Incidentally, Saurav suffers from the same debilitating Retinitis Pigmentosa like his fellow-artiste and friend Pallab). As a student of City College, Saurav kept acting in plays. An encounter with Society of the Visually Handicapped (SVH) Secretary, Henna Basu put him through to Kamal Kanjilal who was organizing a 45- day workshop for the Blind Opera with the National School of Drama (NSD), Delhi at that point of time. This was in 1998. Saurav has been with the Blind Opera since then.

However, with these few exceptions, most visually challenged artistes with the Opera have been initiated, following their encounter with Nandikar at the Calcutta Blind School.

Sutapa Samanta, Morjina Khatun and Sandip Chatterjee were all alumni of Calcutta Blind School when Nandikar and Subhashis Gangopadhyay assisted in the production and staging of Joto Doorei Jaaiee (However far I go) with the students of Classes VI to X. Once they left school after their Madhyamik (school finals), they got in touch with academician Prashanto Chattopadhyay, Nandikar light designer Ashoke Pramanik, stage designer Debashis Chowdhury and director Subhasis Gangopadhyay who had been toying with the idea of starting a theatre group to serve as a cultural platform for the blind.

Subhas De fell in love with the idea when he attended the centenary celebrations as an ex-alumni of the Calcutta Blind School in 1994.An accomplished singer, he is a master of several musical instruments-including the Esraj, the harmonium, and the tabla, this severely blind artiste is an accomplished scriptwriter, director and actor as also the lead singer in the Blind Operas productions today.

For Sutapa, who has been learning Bharat Natyam since she was a little child, dramatics was a welcome extension of her creative instincts after she finished junior college. Besides, her partial blindness, caused by an attack of glaucoma, was not that difficult to manage to become a part of the Opera. The same would apply for Sandeep Chatterjee whose eyesight is partially affected due to a family history of Optical Atrophy.

Each of these visually challenged youngsters also reaped the advantages of a basic grounding in music and the arts at the Calcutta Blind School. But then, for someone totally blind like Morjina Khatun, the mobility training at the School was certainly not adequate for theatre. Sensing this, the Blind Opera has been organizing workshops for their benefit. But more than the workshops, it is the social interaction and common platform with like-minded visually challenged persons that has worked greatly to enhance the confidence of these youngsters, as they openly acknowledge.

If Pallab Haldar and Saurav Bose with their genetically caused partial blindness never ever ventured out beyond the evening, joining the Blind Opera has equipped them with the confidence to return back home late in the night to Diamond Harbour and Baguihati (in the eastern suburbs) respectively. Morjina Khatun may be totally blind. But she not only manages a family as any ordinary housewife; she travels to and from Behala in south Kolkata to Shyambazar in central Kolkata easily. Subhash Des talents have blossomed so noticeably that he has landed a job with a Bengali channel as a scriptwriter, and has also played the role of a blind adult in a telefilm Aponjon (Ones Own). He has recently directed a play Aleek Drishti(Imaginary Vision) for the Workshop of the Blind held at Salt Lake too.

These youngsters have developed the confidence to reach out to their less fortunate visually challenged brethren and to make others start life anew. For instance, Subrato Santra was brought into the troupe through the efforts of Subhash De and his friends. Hailing from an economically poor background, Subrato lost his eyes following a childhood accident. Totally devoid of any education, he was making a living selling masalas when he met Subhash and others at a Braille centre, which the latter frequented to pursue their college education. They taught him to read and write, and equipped him with a basic education to sail through life. Subrato has also picked up the art of making chairs, and is now into a successful business of supplying central government and private offices against orders.

The fact that the Blind Opera has received nationwide recognition has also contributed to the confidence they have imbued. The annual Pratibandhi O Prantik Natyotsav (Theatre festival of the Disabled and Marginal) that the Blind Opera has been organizing since 2000 has contributed in no small measure to this positive atmosphere and to draw the youngsters out of their shell. We found these youngsters clam up every time they encountered able-bodied persons their own age. Hence, every time a query was directed to us during performance-related tours, I would direct them to these boys and girls, says Blind Opera President and academician, Dr Prashanto Chattopadhyay.

As a non-governmental organization (NGO) aided by the central government, the Shyambazar Blind Opera is slowly spreading its wings to the Northeast. Recently, Subhashis Gangopadhyay and his compatriots trained visually challenged youngsters at the Jana Mangal Andha Adarsha Vidyalaya at Moran, in Dibrugarh, Assam where they produced a play, Lahe lahe (Slowly, slowly).

Currently, Blind Opera Secretary Ashoke Pramanick and President Dr Prashanto Chattopadhyay are working for the inclusion of drama as part of the curriculum under the governments Mass Education Project. We are trying since 1999, but until now, nothing has moved forward, says Pramanick. In case the idea is accepted, this will be another of those novel experiments that shall spell as one more milestone in the lives of these innovative gentlemen.



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