Rabindranath Tagore’s Bangalore connection

Amit Ranjan Biswas, a psychiatrist based in London with a fondness for theatre, is bringing his latest Bengali play Hey Bondhu Bidaye (Farewell My Friend) to the city. Written and directed by Biswas, this play has interwoven elements from Rabindranath Tagore’s novel Shesher Kobita and a dramatised conversation between Tagore and a friend after he wrote this novel, as envisioned by the playwright.

“This Bengali drama has a strong Bangalore connect,” says Aloke Biswas, CEO of producers Maam Entertainment. In 1928, Rabindranath Tagore was on his way to Oxford, UK to a deliver the Hibbert Lecture (an annual series of lectures on theological issues sponsored by the Hibbert Trust).

But that year, Tagore couldn’t make it to the Hibbert lecture as he fell ill. “Tagore was asked to come to Bangalore for a change of scene and climate. He stayed with Prof Brajendranath Seal, the
then vice-chancellor of Mysore University,” says Biswas.

While here, Tagore wrote one of his eternal classics, Shesher Kobita, a love saga. The novel recounts the intense romance between Amit Roy, an Oxford educated barrister, and Labonya, an upper class girl. “It is a blend of scintillating dialogues and poetic exchanges between the lovers who choose to separate just to keep their love alive,” says Biswas. On June 25, 1928, Tagore got into a creative frenzy and wrote all night, completing this novella in the wee hours of the morning. The following day, he read it out to his acquaintances Prasanta Mahalanabis, the famous statistician based in Bangalore, and his wife Rani.

The new play adapted from Shesher Kobita has four characters: Amit and Labonya and Tagore and Rani Mahalanabis. The play interlaces segments of Shesher Kobita and a fictional conversation between Mahalanabis and Tagore, says Biswas.
Bengali thespian Soumitra Chatterjee, made famous by roles in several Satyajit Ray films such as Apur Sansar and Charulata, will be playing the part of an aged Amit Roy.

This play has been staged in the heartland of Bengali intelligentsia, Kolkata, and is now travelling to Bangalore.
Though it is largely in Bengali, the fact that it has intercepts from Shesher Kobita, written while Tagore stayed in this city makes it special, according to Biswas. Moreover, the city, he says “boasts of a huge Bengali population, who’ve made it their home.”

Those who do catch this one, says Biswas, will be able to relate to the romance between Amit Roy and Labonya. “Though it might be hard to find such celebrated love in today’s world, the fact that many have a commitment phobia and also that all of us at some point of time would have felt deeply for someone special. Tagore visualising this nearly 80 years ago indicates revolutionary thinking," concludes Biswas.

Hey Bondhu Bidaye will be staged at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall on Friday, July 2 at 7pm.