Stark widerness. A Hindu widow of the royal family is on the way to her in laws. A sudden attack by dekoits unleashes disaster.

Just when her modesty is at stake, a young man, a Muslim appears. He rescues her. But those eyes haunt him and thousands of questions flored his mind. Freedom and independence that he was concerned about all these days, suddenly seem incomplete. They meet again after sometime while on return some conversation in between and both finally begin a new journey together.

The Hindu widow's family, tradition and heritage are left side and the young man pics up shreds of dreams of freedom to construct an image of his ideal of intense love. Who are these people? Are they merely some names from the pages of history? Or historic emblems of our conscience perhaps? May be they are the same who wished to uphold the idea of freedom during the blood stained phase of bengal's history.

Sense of individual freedom awakens and nurtures the idea of an an independent state its this sense that transforms a widowed Swarnomoyee into the commandent-in-chief Sonai Bibi. In this play lets weetness the transformation through the history of the Baro-Bhuiyas (the era of twelve chiefs) ans discover ourselves.

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Cast & Credits

Cast: Apurbo Kumar Saha, Sounabh Bose, Ananya Shankar Debabhuti, Debabrata Bhattacharjee, Debasish chattopadhyay, Ashok Dasgupta, Ashish bhowmik, Parthoprotim Mukhopadhyay, Abhijeet Dutta, Asit Banerjee, Debabrata Ghosh, Arya Jana, Srikanto Dutta Gupta
Playwright: Sounava Bose
Direction: Jayanta Mitra
Guidance: Sima Mukherjee
stage idea: Sandeepsuman Bhattachraya
Set Making: Madan Haldar
Light: Badal Das
Music: Suvrndu Maity
Costume: Poulomi Talukdar
Stage propes: Debabrata Ghosh
Choreography: Kallol De, Sutapa Pradhan

Director’s Note

I have always considered theatre a medium of protest. While dramatizing the story and carving out a stage production. This time while planning the yearlong activities to celebrate fifty years of Rangroop, there was a suggestion to direct a new production. Sounava scripted a Play named "Sonai Bibi", based on a story by Sunil Gangopadhyay. We all were very excited once the play was read out at the usual rehearsal venue of Rangroop. Apparently, a love story but it also raises thousands of questions and possibilities. From individual personal freedom to communal freedom, politics of religion, the hidden narrow- minded fundamentalism in each individual and moreover, the long-forgotten history of undivided Bengal. With some trepidation I gave in and agreed to the proposition. Sima-di would be by my side. I felt assured. There would be a lot of Learning opportunities. With anticipation of blessings from viewers, I have begun the journey. The rest will depend on time.....