The ideation :

Badal Sarkar is one of the foremost luminaries from the world of performing arts. Through the seventies along with Girish Karnad(Kannada), Vijay Tendulkar(Marathi) and Mohan Rakesh (Hindi) Badal Sarkar spearheaded the Indian playwriting movement providing with it some great masterpieces.

A chaotic man :

While writing on his experience in theatre still he is quiet unsure about the fact that if the journey can be said ‘the order of things’. Can he take a holistic approach to remember his journey through several decades? Can it be made in a disciplined memoir at the age of 84 as a memoirist does? Sircar himself says “I am not a whole man “ his being is not an all encompassing space. “I am fragmented”– like anybody else” He clearly says that he is composed of several elements. And these elements that “constitute the man” are essentially contradictory in nature. His world is utterly ‘incoherent’, ‘chaotic’ disordered and ‘full of contradiction’. He also finds a tremendous pressure of inner contradiction while dealing with his chosen medium. But the tension in a  way expedite the process of his playmaking as he gets himself involved in the process of underlining the problematic of the thematic of his play. 

The politics of language :

He writes his plays in Bengali but the medium of his education or any official work is English. Whenever he goes out of Calcutta he has to speak in English. He thinks he speaks English ‘wrongly’. he ‘pronounces it badly’- such situation leads him to a fraught with contradiction. The language English is not a neutral choice for him. It is the “imposition of an imperialistic rule over” the country where he is born. There fore it burdens him with a sense of slander when some one says ‘you speak English so well’. To choose his own medium through which he can express his creative genius is passing through a political turmoil.

His belief :

In spite of several inner contradiction and incoherence he believes firmly in basic human rights of freedom, work, food, culture etc. when a man made machine sends pictures from the very edge of the solar system that makes us proud. But for sarkar it is a moment to raise the question outrageously that isn’t it man’s stupidity is not being able to solve the problem of one human being dying of starvation in every four seconds.

Negotiation between real and unreal :

In spite of all his commitment to people’s theatre he is never a ‘realist’ in the sense of classical realism. But he prefers indulging in frequent overlapping moments in his plays those negotiate between real & unreal & through this process he wants to reach the people of our country specially the margins. Theatre according to him is a live show & hence offers scope for direct communication in a ‘here and now’ situation. To create such environment sarkar is minimalist by choice. In case of proscenium theatre   the performers deny the very presence of the spectator. But the form he propagates totally embraces the viewers as an intregal part of the histrionics. He thinks his journey from ‘And Indrajit’ (Ebong Indrajit) to some other plays as the beginning of his of his journey & from Spartacus on wards is another.

Autonomy of the text :

Our effort tries to reveal the multidimensional elements in his plays & to underline all the multifarious diverse elements that constitute his plays. More over how Badal babu enables his reader & performers to create their own texts while getting in touch with his plays. We firmly believe that Sarkar’s plays are more or less everywhere bearing the potential of the textual autonomy. When we come across a group who are doing the play ‘Bhoma’ with the tribal people near Ahmedabad, & Jamsedpur or when we are told by the architecture students of cept university Gujrat that they have done sarkar’s four plays including Ebong Indrajit &  while doing the play  Ebong Indrajit they put aside the names of the characters used in the play by the playwright and instead they include their own names- it seems that sarkar’s texts are full of suggestion those facilitate the process of formation of another text.
A senior playwright and director of Gujrati theatre Hasmukh Baradi describes how gujrati plays have taken a changed direction after sirkar conducted four consecutive workshops in Gujrat(1979 –1982). Now many Gujrati plays are performed with imprints of sarkar’s ideations of theatre.
However such several instances can be cited to bring home the fact that the structural, formal even thematic of sarkar’s play or a workshop conducted by Badal Sarkar has changed the conventional notion of theatre, to the theatre workers & their mind set in Gujrat. It may sounds like a statement that is over simplified but a detailed analysis of different audio visual materials that we have collected will up hold our basic premise solidly.

Now at the age of 84 when Sarkar’s health condition is deteriorating still some one can find that at least 10 to 12 hours he writes. His lungs are not working well but his energy and vision is not at all shattered. It will be interesting at 2009 to listen from him how does he look back at the age of 84 towards his ‘voyage in theatre’. It will bring us a chance to examine to basic premise of the author text relationship once the author is removed, the claim to decipher a text becomes entirely futile but again to give a text an author or many texts the respective authors is to impose a limit on that or those texts, since the process is to furnish it with final signified to close the writing. Our process will intend to discover Badal Sarkar as an author who is never claimed as a ‘final signified’ or never tried to bring a fore closer that will stop the process of writing & formation of texts. Sarkar can do it very well at the age of 84 even. 

Politics or polemics :-

To put it in a nutshell Badal Sarkar belongs to a rare category of interdisciplinary, non-party, political dissenter
 in parallel in Indian theatre is a rarity . So what is rare about him? It’s the creation of theatrical text, which transcends the written text and increasing rejection of ‘words’ in theater - filling up the space with sound scape, noise scape and body scape .One of the lesser  known Badal babu’s production which is probably one of his most significant one is a play called ‘Manushe Manushe’ - the play had no dialogues; except a random series of news paper headlines arranged in such a way that it is interspersed between live actions .  So when two dots Chandigar ‘Maphia’perform a word less ‘Bhoma’, Hindu college Delhi presents ‘Manushe Manushe’ orIndraprastha college for women presents an all woman ‘bong Indrajit’ – Badal babu’s politics of gesture, be subtext of silence becomes more important than just his written Bangla text.
                                              
                                                      ‘Ajoka theatre’ in Pakistan began their journey with a small production of ‘Julush’ (Michil) , Manipuri theatre was revolutionized with a physical theatre workshop conducted by Sarker that was the starting point for many including H.Kanaihalal , or when action player’s (speach and hearing impaired in Kolkata ) does Hatta Malar Opare or Best of kolkata campus does Bhul rasta or art students of Kalabhavan Santiniketan starts looking at visual arts differently after Badal babu’s tint in Santiniketan or Doon school takes the Sarker’s version of ‘Androcleas and lion’ and retranslates it in English or Sriram college of commerce Delhi does a heavy yet edited version of sheshnei (there is  no end) ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­– no end- you start realizing that Badal babu’s deep personal politics of a theatre has an universal resonance that
attracts campus substream fringe , and all the dissenters who engage.

                                                         In an interview Heiner Muller was asked your message :- he replied I am a hope dealer not a dope dealer. In the dope of technology and standardized theatre practices that gets justifiedas global theatre and experiment that confuses more than that engages . Badal Sarker remains relevant as locallyGlobal . Some body only like him can only raise the question of economics of theatre practice and portabilityand flexibility of  theatre and house space  become elastic. Thank god he is local! Which is why we are making a local film on Global thought.

The possibility of dissemination :

Every playwright has to think of the final event, the performance, right from the beginning. He has to deal with two mediums simultaneously- literature & theatre. The form of theatre that sarkar propagates can be produced by a group of performers to a group of spectator much more easily in comparison with other art forms. The basic premise of Sarkar’s philosophy of theatre is based on three basic principals.

1. Flexibility
2. Portability
3. In expensive

Since this form 3rd theatre is not burdened with huge props or glittering lights or an auditorium even. The performances can be organized in open spaces both in the rural as well as urban streets. Other wise in different kinds of intimate spaces like school, college campus, or several nooks &corners. In this process the student community can be easily incorporated and at the same time people from different strata of our society.

Now in Bengal there are a very few groups who are practicing this from of theatre. DRISHYA a film collective has already undertaken its mass reach out programmed through showing films. This audiovisual documentation will enable us to strengthen our initiatives in such ways.

1. After showing this film on Badal Sarkar & his propagated from of theatre, with the help of some theatre people we can engage school students or college students irrespective of rural & urban space to take part in workshops.
2. we can reach the margins & the fringe with this audiovisual documentation & workshops.
3. Since main stream film stars like Nana Patekar & others are taking part in this audio-visual documentation this will enhance the people’s interest in such practice.
4. This will certainly enable us much vigorously to address different social issues among the people.
5. If live performance & film screening both come together it will naturally attract a large number of people.

At this juncture when everything (even poverty) becomes spectacle such initiative will bring forth additional dimension & different meaning to our standardized cultural practice. It may enhance the possibility of a co-existence of live performance and audiovisuals. The world we live in is dominated by audio-visuals. It’s a world where we perceive what ever glitters that is gold. The big hoardings, posters, banners, audiovisual advertisements – all suggest grandeur & gloss. In such a space ‘alternative’ theatre and cinema are more or less pushed to the brink. Indigenous folk forms are gradually becoming on the verge of destructions. This initiative might build up a bridge between folk arts & urban art forms since Badal Sarkar has extensively used folk element in his plays. Let’s hope for all the best for such new experimentation.

Interviews to be taken:-

Badal sarkar 4 consecutive days or with one day gap everyday two hours.

Select Bibliography:-

1. All the plays and prose writing whatever available by Badal Sarkar.
2. Oxford companion to Indian theatre Ed: Anandalal o.u.p. New Delhi2004.
3. Galpo Samagro-Gour Kishore Ghosh. Pub: May2003
4. Modern literary theory Ed:Philip Rice & Patricia Waugh Hodder Arnold London 4th edition.
5. Agnigarva-Mahasweta Devi, Kauruna Prakashani kolkata Bengali 1406/2000
6. Godyo Sangraho(collected prose) Utpal Dutta, Dey’s kolkata jan 1998
7. Drama from Ibsen to Brecht Raymnond williams, Penguin 1973
8. The theatre of the street Ed: S. Desh Pande, Pub janam 2007
9. Ritwik Ghataker Natak Sangraho (collected plays: Ritwik Ghatak) W. B. Natak Academy 2008.
10. Penguin Dictionary of theatre.
11. The MessingKauf dialogues- Bertolt Brecht trans:- John Willet Methuen- 1965.
12. Parables for The Theatre – Bertolt Brecht   trans. Eric Bentley Penguin 1965.
13. Bengali Theatre – Kiranmoy Raha, Pub: N.B.T. 1978.
14. The colonial staged- Sudipto Chatterjee, Pub: Seagull Books 2007.
15. Collected Plays- Vol 1 &2- Girish Karned O.U.P.
16. Wedding Album-Girish Karnad O.P.U-2009.
17. Yayati- Girish Karnad O.U.P. –2008.
18. The World turned Upside down Christopher Hill Penguin – 1991.
19. Collected Plays- Vijay Tendulkar O.U.P- 1997.
20. Two plays- The Cyclist, His fifth Woman Vijay Tendulkar O.U.P.2004.
21. Chalachitrakkhar- Barin Saha Monchasha co-operative jan-2004.
22. Halfway House-Mohon Rakesh world view 2005
23.  A) Srestho kabita- Birendra Chattopadhyay B) Srestho kabita- Mani Bhusen Bhattacharya. Dey’s- 2008   kolkata.
24. Playwright at the center- Marathi Drama from 1843 to present-Shanta Gokhale pub-seagull
25. The politics of cultural practice thinking through theatre in an age of globalization – Rustom Bharucha o.u.p. 2001.