Nandikar
Encyclopedia
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
group in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The group has its headquarters in Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
in the state of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, but works around the world.
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History
Nandikar's story begins on June 29, 1960, when Ajitesh Bandopadhyay and Asit Bandopadhyay, along with a collection of committed young theatre persons, broke away and formed the group, which consisted of Ajoy Ganguly, Satyan Mitra, Dipen Sengupta, later joined by Keya Chakravorty, Bibhas Chakravorty, and Rudraprasad SenguptaRudraprasad Sengupta
Rudraprasad Sengupta is a Bengali Indian actor, director and cultural critic.- Biography :He was born in East Bengal , the son of Anant Sengupta and Usha Prabha Sengupta. He studied at the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta where he earned his B.A. and M.A degrees in English...
.
The group's early productions were mainly adaptations of non-Indian plays, like Natyakarer Sandhane Chhati Charitra (Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author), Manjari Amer Manjari (Chekhov's Cherry Orchard), Jokhan Eka (Arnold Wesker's Roots), Sher Afgan (Pirandello's Henry IV) and Tin Poyshar Pala (Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera). They also performed Rabindranath Tagore's Char Adhyaya.
In the late 1970s, first Asit Bandopadhyay and then Ajitesh Bandopadhyay left the group. With Rudraprasad Sengupta
Rudraprasad Sengupta
Rudraprasad Sengupta is a Bengali Indian actor, director and cultural critic.- Biography :He was born in East Bengal , the son of Anant Sengupta and Usha Prabha Sengupta. He studied at the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta where he earned his B.A. and M.A degrees in English...
as the main director, a new era started, and Nandikar turned from a pure performance-oriented theatre group to an organisation with a wide range of projects, including the annual National Theatre Festival
National Theatre Festival
Nandikar's National Theatre Festival was started in 1984. It is arranged annually in Kolkata, India, between 16 and 25 December. Initiated and organized, as the name suggest, by the theatre group Nandikar...
.
Among the group's present actresses and actors are Swatilekha Sengupta, who starred in Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
's movie Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) (1984) and Roland Joffé's
Roland Joffé
Roland Joffé is an English-French film director who is known for his Oscar nominated movies, The Killing Fields and The Mission. He began his career in television. His early television credits included episodes of Coronation Street and an adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada...
City of Joy
City of Joy
City of Joy is a novel written by Dominique Lapierre and a 1992 film directed by Roland Joffé.-Plot:The story revolves around the trials and tribulations of a young Polish priest, Stephan Kovalski, the hardships endured by a rickshaw puller, Hasari Pal in Calcutta , India and the experiences of...
(1992), Goutam Halder, Debshankar Halder, Sohini Sengupta Halder, who acted in Aparna Sen's
Aparna Sen
Aparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:...
movie Paromitar Ek Din
Paromitar Ek Din
Paromitar Ek Din is an award-winning Indian Bengali feature film directed by Aparna Sen.-Plot:This film is exploring the dual themes of friendship and loneliness. Sanaka and Paromita are mother and daughter-in-law who, despite differences in age, backgrounds and temperaments, build a strong...
(2000), and Rudraprasad Sengupta
Rudraprasad Sengupta
Rudraprasad Sengupta is a Bengali Indian actor, director and cultural critic.- Biography :He was born in East Bengal , the son of Anant Sengupta and Usha Prabha Sengupta. He studied at the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta where he earned his B.A. and M.A degrees in English...
himself. Besides acting in Nandikar productions, he has also played in Bernardo Bertolucci's
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...
Little Buddha
Little Buddha
Little Buddha is a 1994 feature film by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, starring Bridget Fonda and Keanu Reeves. Made by Bertolucci's regular partner, British producer Jeremy Thomas, it marked the team's return to the East after The Last Emperor....
(1993).
Nandikar regularly performs all over India. However, during the last decade, the group has performed in several countries outside India, including Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, UK, and USA.
Plays
The list is incomplete- 2009 Madhabi - direction Swatilekha Sengupta, Based on Visma Sahni's drama
- 2008 Agnyatobaas - direction Sumanto Gangopaddhay,Based on Sukanta Gangopaddhyay's story
- 2007 Jaha Chai... - direction Rudraprasad Sengupta & Goutam Haldar
- 2005 Barda - Based on Munshi Premchand's story Bade Bhai Sahab, Direction Goutam Haldar
- 2005 Chokh Gyalo - Written by Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay, Direction Goutam Haldar
- 2005 Bappaditya - Written by Abanindranath Tagore, direction Goutam Haldar
- 2004 Dulia - Written by Leela Mazumdar, direction Swatilekha Sengupta & Goutam Haldar
- 2004 Andharmoni - Written by Leela Mazumdar, direction Swatilekha Sengupta & Goutam Haldar
- 2003 Sojon Baadiyar Ghat - Based on a poem by Jasimuddin, Direction Gautam Haldar
- 2001 Football - Adaptation of Peter Terson's Zigger Zagger, Direction Swatilekha Sengupta
- 2000 Ei Sahar Ei Samay
- 1999 Maramiya Mon/The Gentle Spirit - Adaptation of F. Dostoevsky's The Gentle Spirit, Direction Goutam Haldar
- 1998 Brechter Khonje - A centenary tribute to Brecht
- 1998 Shanu Roychowdhury - Adaptation of Willy Russell's Shirley ValentineShirley ValentineShirley Valentine is a one-character play by Willy Russell. Taking the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife, it focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad.-Plot:...
, direction Swatilekha Sengupta. - 1997 Nagar Keertan
- 1996 Gotraheen
- 1995 Meghnad Badh Kabya
- 1993 Feriwalaar Mrityu
- 1988 Shesh Sakshatkaar
Projects
- In-house workshops: Initiated as means to recruit and train new Nandikar-members. Annual in-house production-oriented theatre training.
- Theatre with the Youth: Initiated in 1980, still running. Consist of production-oriented training both within the group, and vis-à-vis independent and young theatre troupes.
- National Theatre Festival: Initiated in 1984, still running. Organised under the objective to provide a counter balance from the cultural world against divisive and disintegrating tendencies rocking the sub-continent and to create a forum for an interaction of multi-lingual and multi-cultural theatre forms.
- Theatre-In-Education: Initiated in 1989, still running. The main aim as they present it in “Nandikar Profile” is to let the school children know their milieu and perceive their world through theatre, to initiate their analysis of his milieu, to sharpen the interface between the “I and the World” and help them assume the role of world-changers. As part of the project there have been arranged training for 250 teachers from 80 schools in West-Bengal, short-term workshops at 96 schools and longer-term workshops at 32 schools resulting in stage performances. Nandikar has also documented their TIE-project, made video modules and published a book on theatre games (Sengupta 2000) and a collection of plays for children (Nandikar 2000). One of these projects is "Journey into Theatre", the annual workshop Nandikar organizes with the Dramatics Cell, Indian Institute of Management CalcuttaIndian Institute of Management CalcuttaThe Indian Institute of Management Calcutta is an institute of management located in Kolkata , India giving diplomas in management...
. - Secondary Schools: Initiated in 1989, still running. Nandikar is often asked to give production-oriented workshops to older children. Same objectives as TIE-project.
- Kolkata Rescue: Initiated in 1992, ended in 1998. A project of theatre activities for disadvantaged and handicapped children. Accomplished together with the non-formal educational-cum-social organisation, Kolkata Rescue.
- Nivedita Colony: Initiated in 1992, ended a couple of years later. Work with children of the suburban Nivedita Colony of poor Bangladeshian immigrants.
- Theatre with Visually Challenged (Blind Opera): Initiated in 1994, last production with Nandikar participation in 1996.
- Theatre with Sex Workers: Initiated in the 1990s, finalized. Production-oriented training in co-operation with Komal Gandhar, an organisation of sex workers.