BERTOLT BRECHT received an unlikely birthday gift this evening at Sukanta Sadan, Barrackpore, in the form of 'Chand Manasar Kissa'. The age old Bengali folk legend involving the serpent goddess and a headstrong Bengali entrepreneur has seen countless proscenium adaptations in the recent past. One felt, "Oh, no! Not again!" when Sansriti launched their latest. As one sat through the two hour long production amid a lukewarm audience, a sense of deja vu did cross the mind. But the inclusion of Subhashis Gangopadhyay as the director gave a contemporary twist to the tale. With Debesh Chattopadhyay as the scenographer, a seamless movement was ensured anyway. The dark world full of sinister motives turned dynamic with Debesh and Tarun Pradhan creating image after image of riverine Bengal. Multitalented Monalisa Chatterjee tried her best to etch a complex Manasa. The rest followed the narrative theatre tradition that Post -Colonial Bengal should call her own. The Sutradhar duo came straight out of that matrix. But they kept referring to different power games involving man and divinity, patriarchy and woman, and wait --- the malfunctioning of the Indian Parliament! The otherwise insipid music had a brilliant moment when Behula switched over to sexy moves from rather classical gestures. How the thugs and the lumpens have started calling the shots even in the so-called haloed centres of art couldn't get a better deal.
