RaktaKalyan
RaktaKalyan
The play, “RAKTA KALYAN” planned to be staged this year is originally written by Shri Girish Karnad and adopted by Shri Sankha Ghosh.
About seven hundred and fifty years earlier, in the mid-twelfth century, the saint-poet Vasavanna had expressed similar ideas through his life and teachings. Vasavanna was the founder of the Lingayat community and a Shaiviite. He could convince his followers that God dwelt among the humans who toiled hard daily in every sphere of life. The philosophy of work as power was known as Kayak and those who believed in it were known as the Sharans. This was how a vast community of Sharans, irrespective of caste, came into place. They fought against casteism and preached gender equality. Predictably, the Brahmins were enraged. The patronizing royal Bijjwal could no longer support Vasavanna and was himself murdered.
Vasavanna died in 1168 AD. His death was preceded by a blood bath in the city of Kalyan. Girish Karnad describes the event in his play named “RAKTA KALYAN”. In the foreword of the Hindi version Karnad narrates how the Sharans were consumed by terror and violence and the entire city of Kalyan became a pool of blood.
“RAKTA KALYAN” as a theatre production attempts to analyze the relevance of the play in contemporary times.
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Cast & Credits
| Cast: Kamal Chattopadhyay / Jagannath Chakraborty, Kinjal Nanda, Ananyasankar Debabhuti, Debabrata bhattacharya, sounava Bose, Debasis Chattopadhyay, Asok Dasgupta, Subrata Majumder, Asish Bhaumik, Partha Pratim Mukherjee, Achyut Prosad Ghosh, Chandan Ghatak, Avijit Dutta, Jayanta Mitra, Apurba Saha, Asit Bandopadhyay, Sreekanta Dutta Gupta, Supurna Ganguly, Arkapol Talukdar, Kanailal Patra, Rishav Bhattacharya, Dipali Adak, Aparna Dhar, Mamata Banerjee, Vaswati Chakraborti, Jayati Basu Roy, Aishwarya Bannerjee, Anwesa Bandopadhyay, Sukla Dasgupta, Sudeshna Dasgupta / Poulomi Talukdar, Nasrin, Susmita Pan. |
| Play: Girish Karnad |
| Adaptation: Sankha Ghosh |
| editing & Direction: Sima Mukhopadhyay |
| Stage design & Lettering: Sandeepsuman Bhattachraya |
| Set Making: Madan Haldar |
| Stage props: Asim Jana, Arya Jana |
| Light: Badal Das |
| Music: Gauriprasad Nanda and Jyotirmoy Bannerjee |
| Background Instruments and Voice: Arnab Bhattacharya, Nandakishor ghosh, Atri Kotal |
| Costume Design: Tulika Das |
| Make up: Bablu Mondal |
| Choreography: Somnath Dutta |
raktakalyan's
precious moments
“I never set out for a pilgrimage. I find my temples on both sides of the road.” Or, “He is there where the farmer ploughs his field.”
Director’s Note
I have always considered theatre a medium of protest. While dramatizing the story and carving out a stage production. I wished to hone the idea. Extreme greed for political and economic supremacy is the driving force for spreading religion divide among the masses. Fear and superstition are used as equally effective tools. Families don't spare their own children if they choose to cross the boundaries set by religion. Despite all the scientific progress, we remain engaged in Black magic, witchcraft, love jehad. These days religion seems to spread only vengeance instead of fostering human and social values. Women from poverty ridden families become the worst victims. We raise our voice of protest and chant "Swaha" to reiterate that religion cannot be the other name of violence and nor can women be sacrificed in the name of religion. In the process, along with our Rangroop family, I will be honoured if our eloquence stirs even a single soul.