Shyamanand Jalan
Encyclopedia
Shyamanand Jalan was an influential Kolkata
-based India
n thespian
, theatre director, and actor. He is credited for the renaissance period of modern Indian theatre and especially the Hindi theatre
in Kolkata from the 1960s to 1980s. He was the first to perform modernist Mohan Rakesh
, starting with his magnum opus Ashadh Ka Ek Din
(One Day in Ashad) in 1960 and in the coming years bridged the gap between Hindi theatre and Bengali theatre
, by mounting Hindi productions of works by Bengali playwrights, like Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit (1968) and Pagla Ghora (1971), which in turn introduced Sircar to rest of the country. In 2005, he directed his first and only film Eashwar Mime Co., which was an adaptation of Dibyendu Palit
's story, Mukhabhinoy, by Vijay Tendulkar
.
Also noted as an actor in stage plays, he is well remembered for his performance as the don in Roland Joffe
's 1992 film City of Joy
. He also worked with reputed parallel cinema
directors. He acted in Mrinal Sen
's television series, Tasveer Apni Apni, and later in Arohan by Shyam Benegal
, Kahan Kahan Se Guzar Gaya by MS Sathyu, and Chokh by Utpalendu Chakrabarty.
He co-founded theatre group Anamika in 1955, impresario
organization Anamika Kala Sangam in 1967, and later in 1972, he left Anamika to form his own Padatik theatre group, of which he remained director for the rest of his life; Padatik Dance Center was launched in 1989, a school for Classical and Contemporary Dance in Kolkata. He received the 1972 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
for Direction, awarded by the Sangeet Natak Akademi
, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama , and later remained the vice-chairman of the Akademi (1999-2004).
family of Ishwari Prasad Jalan who was a solicitor by profession and later turned to politics , Jalan studied law at Scottish Church College, Calcutta
(University of Calcutta), and was a part of the Burrabazar
Students' Congress.
He started his acting career with play Naya Samaj in 1949 , followed by Samasya (1951) directed by Tarun Roy in 1951. He directed his play Ek Thi Rajkumari (1953), a children's play, written by Roy, in Hindi. This was followed by Konark (1954) by Jagdish Chandra Mathur and Chandragupta (1955) by Seth Govind Das. He continued to act in most of his plays, sometimes playing the lead and even into his later years.
He was the first theatre director to recognize the plays of Mohan Rakesh
, when he staged his Ashadh Ka Ek Din (One Day in Ashadh) in 1960 , which had a competition organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi
in 1959, and was soon established as the first modern Hindi play. This was also a breakthrough play for Jalan as well, as for the first time he was able to showcase an in-depth study of the complexity of human existence, to critical acclaim. He subsequently staged Lehron Ke Rajhans (Swans of the Waves) in 1966 and Adhe Adhure (Halfway House) (1970), where he and his wife Chetna played the leads. His Hindi productions captured the magical realism of Bengali playwright Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit (1968), Pagla Ghora (Mad Horse) in 1971 in brought Sircar to national limelight. He was equally adept in handling harsh realism of Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar
' s Sakhārām Binder
and Khamosh Adalat Jari Hai (Hindi version of Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe
), Panchi Aise Aate Hain (Thus Arrive the Birds) from his Ashi Pakhare Yeti in Marathi in 1971, Gidhade (The Vultures) in 1973 and Kanyadan (1987).
His other plays include Kauva Chala Hans ki Chal, Gyandev Agnihotri's Shuturmurg (Ostrich) (1967) and a production of Romanian playwright Mihail Sebastian
's Breaking News as Chhapte chhapte (Going to Print) in 1963, in the arena format.
His production displayed his respect for the script as he didn't alter a word, and over the year he started a collaborative approach towards his productions with the playwright, a new trend in in Indian theatre. He often invited playwrights to the rehearsals, Mohan Rakesh who had been skeptical to excessive directorial influence on the integrity of the drama-in-performance, spent three weeks with the group, in Kolkata ahead of the 1966 production of Lehron Ke Rajhans, and even rewrote the third act several times, completed two days before the opening night of the production, and revised it yet again before its publication in late 1966 , and in time it became one of the important productive playwright-director relationship in Indian theatre. While working on Evam Indrajit he extensively collaborated with Sircar.
He co-founded theatre group Anamika in 1955 with Pratibha Aggarwal, a Hindi writer and a great granddaughter of Bhartendu Harishchandra, which played a pioneering role in the revival of Hindi theatre. , and remained with it till 1972, and during this period it created a large audience for Hindi theatre in Bengali speaking Kolkata. At the time, Usha Ganguly
of Rangkarmee was only other director, to be actively involved in Hindi theatre in the city, just as Satyadev Dubey
was in Bombay.
, he left Anamika in 1971 and established Padatik (literally foot-soldier) theatre group in 1972, of which he was the founding director. This gave him a chance to venture into bolder themes, like those in Vijay Tendukar's plays like
Gidhade (The Vultures) (1973) and Sakharam Binder (1979), and Mahashweta Devi's Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma (Mother of 1084) (1978), with his new venture he stepped beyond Indianism, modernism, or experimentalism. Padatik in the coming years, started inviting outside directors like, Ranjit Kapoor, Satyadev Dubey, Bennevitz, Rajinder Nath, and Rodney Marriot, and soon the group was performing three productions in a year. In time, dramatic speech and theatricality became the hallmark of Padatik plays and most notably Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit (And Indrajit) remembered for its stylized movement and speech.
Along with his wife he founded Padatik dance school in Kolkata, for classical as well as contemporary dance. He also remained associated with Natya Shodh Sasthan Kolkata, an archive of Indian theatre for many years. Long before trend government funded festivals started, he organized the first performing arts festival, a "Chhau Festival" bringing together three forms of Chhau dance
, i.e. Seraikella, Mayurbhanj, Purulia, together on one platform, in March 1977 in Kolkata. Padatik also organized workshops on dance, lec-dems of Gurus of Indian dance including Kelucharan Mohapatra, Vempati Chinna Satyam, Guru Bipin Singh, Birju Maharaj, apart from organizing three major international theatre, dance, martial arts conferences in which theatre personalities like Peter Brook
, Eugenio Barba
, Tadashi Suzuki
, Richard Schechner
, Anna Halprin
and leading theatre directors and actors from all over India, participated.
He also acted in Bengali productions, like Tughlaq (1972), a Bengali version of Girish Karnad
's play performed by Padatik under his own direction , for Pashchimbanga Natya Unnayan Samity, which featured stage actors, like Sombhu Mitra
, Debabrata Dutta and Rudraprasad Sengupta
. He is credited for not only reviving Hindi theatre in Kolkata, but also by performing plays by Bengali playwrights like Badal Sircar's Paagla Ghoda and Evam Indrajit in Hindi, bridging the gap between North Indian and Bengali theatre. He brought Kalidasa
`s Sanskrit play Abhijñānaśākuntalam
as Sakuntala to stage in 1980 with lyrical dance movements of Odissi dance , and G. P. Deshpande`s politically charged Marathi-play Uddhwasta Dharmashala (A Man in Dark Times) in 1982.
He translated plays by Henrik Ibsen
like Janta ka Shatru (An Enemy of the People
) in 1959, Brecht
, Raja Lear from Shakespeare's King Lear
, and Moliere
's The Bourgeois Gentleman and The School for Wives
. He adapted Rabindranath Tagore
, Ghare Baire (Home and Outside) in 1961, and dramatized Mahashweta Devi's classic novel Hazar Churashir Ma (Mother of 1084) as Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma in 1978. He later worked as the vice-chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi
from 1999 to 2004., and as the chairman of the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi and Science City
and the Birla Industrial & Technological Museum
(BITM), Kolkata. He had also been governing body member of the National Council of Science Museums
. He also directed Ramkatha Ram-Kahani (1995), performed by dancers from Padatik Dance Centre, under Chetna Jalan.
In 2005, he directed first and only film Eashwar Mime Co., an adaptation of Dibyendu Palit
's story, Mukhabhinoy, by Vijay Tendulkar. The film is story of a travelling mime company selling products and a writer's views upon its journey, it has two lead Ashish Vidyarthi
playing the role mime company's owner while Pawan Malhotra did the role of the writer. Though it didn't get commercial released during his lifetime, it was screened at Durban International Film Festival
, the 3 Continents Festival and the Kolkata Film Festival
.
Nearly 42 years after he first presented Mohan Rakesh's Lehron Ke Rajhans, he presented a new version, at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav
of the National School of Drama in 2009, to critical acclaim. The brochure of play reproduced two letters, one written by Jalan asking the playwright for clarifications and guidelines, and in the second the reply of Rakesh two months later, in fact after their discussions he rewrote third act.
He died after a long illness at Kolkata on 24 May 2010, survived by his wife and six children.
, was premiered at India Habitat Centre
, New Delhi on August 2, 2010 , thereafter with a special screening on September 11, 2010 at Nandan
theatre in Kolkata, the film was commercially released. Padatik constituted the "Shyamanand Jalan National Youth Theatre Award" for original scripts from Indian playwrights aged between 18 and 25 years, in 2011.
On 4th December 2010, a book Shyamanand Jalan: A Pictorial Tribute by Madhuchhanda Chatterjee, was released at Rabindra Sadan
, Kolkata, followed by excerpts of some plays directed by him, enacted by actors he trained, or organised by Anamika Kala Sangam and Padatik. Also presented was Remembering Shyamanand by Rajinder Nath, Samik Bandyopadhyay, Pratibha Agrawal & others and a homage by Padatik, and 5th a Seminar titled, Kolkata Hindi Theatre and Shyamanand Jalan was held at the venue followed by a screening of excerpts from his works.
The 13th Bharat Rang Mahotsav
, the annual theatre festival of National School of Drama
featured a special section on him. On January 20, 2011 at Kamani Auditorium, Delhi, a retrospective-homage by Padatik, directed by Vinay Sharma, presented excerpts from five plays directed by Shyamanand Jalan, showcasing at least one representative work from each decade of the Padatik years, including Madhavi (2006), Ramkatha Ram-Kahani (1995), Adhey Adhurey (1983) and Sakharam Binder (1978).
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...
-based 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...
n thespian
Thespian
Thespian may refer to:* An actor * A citizen of the ancient Greek city of Thespiae* A member of the International Thespian Society, an honor society that promotes excellence in high school theater...
, theatre director, and actor. He is credited for the renaissance period of modern Indian theatre and especially the Hindi theatre
Hindi theatre
Hindi theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in the Hindi language, including dialects such as Khari boli and Hindustani. Hindi theatre is produced mainly in North India, and some parts of West India and Central India, which include Mumbai and Bhopal...
in Kolkata from the 1960s to 1980s. He was the first to perform modernist Mohan Rakesh
Mohan Rakesh
Mohan Rakesh was one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani literary movement of the Hindi literature in the 1950s. He wrote the first modern Hindi play, Ashadh Ka Ek Din , which won a competition organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi...
, starting with his magnum opus Ashadh Ka Ek Din
Ashadh Ka Ek Din
Ashadh Ka Ek Din is a debut Hindi play by Mohan Rakesh in 1958 and is considered the first Modern Hindi play. The play received a Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for best play in 1959 and has been staged by several prominent directors to critical acclaim...
(One Day in Ashad) in 1960 and in the coming years bridged the gap between Hindi theatre and Bengali theatre
Bengali theatre
Bengali theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in the Bengali language. Bengali theatre is produced mainly in West Bengal, and in Bangladesh. The term may also refer to some Hindi theatres which are accepted by the Bengali people....
, by mounting Hindi productions of works by Bengali playwrights, like Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit (1968) and Pagla Ghora (1971), which in turn introduced Sircar to rest of the country. In 2005, he directed his first and only film Eashwar Mime Co., which was an adaptation of Dibyendu Palit
Dibyendu Palit
Dibyendu Palit is a Bengali writer of poems, novels, and short stories. His first story Chandapatan was published in 1955 in the Sunday edition of Anandabazar Patrika....
's story, Mukhabhinoy, by Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Tendulkar was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marāthi...
.
Also noted as an actor in stage plays, he is well remembered for his performance as the don in Roland Joffe
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...
's 1992 film City of Joy
City of Joy (film)
City of Joy is a 1992 film directed by Roland Joffé, with a screenplay by Mark Medoff. It is based upon the novel of the same name by Dominique Lapierre.-Plot:...
. He also worked with reputed parallel cinema
Parallel Cinema
The Indian New Wave, commonly known in India as Art Cinema or Parallel Cinema as an alternative to the mainstream commercial cinema, is a specific movement in Indian cinema, known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, with a keen eye on the sociopolitical climate of the times...
directors. He acted in Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...
's television series, Tasveer Apni Apni, and later in Arohan by Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal is a prolific Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur , Nishant Manthan and Bhumika he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India although he himself has expressed dislike in the term preferring his work to...
, Kahan Kahan Se Guzar Gaya by MS Sathyu, and Chokh by Utpalendu Chakrabarty.
He co-founded theatre group Anamika in 1955, impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
organization Anamika Kala Sangam in 1967, and later in 1972, he left Anamika to form his own Padatik theatre group, of which he remained director for the rest of his life; Padatik Dance Center was launched in 1989, a school for Classical and Contemporary Dance in Kolkata. He received the 1972 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists. The award consists since 2003 of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram , and a tamrapatra...
for Direction, awarded by the Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India.-History:...
, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama , and later remained the vice-chairman of the Akademi (1999-2004).
Early life and education
Born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, to a Kolkata-based MarwariMarwaris
Marwari or Marwadi or Rajasthani people are Indian ethnic group, that inhabit the Rajasthan region of India. Their language Rajasthani is a part of the western group of Indo-Aryan languages....
family of Ishwari Prasad Jalan who was a solicitor by profession and later turned to politics , Jalan studied law at Scottish Church College, Calcutta
Scottish Church College, Calcutta
The Scottish Church College is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in India. It is affiliated with the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education , the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education for the awarding of baccalaureate and post baccalaureate...
(University of Calcutta), and was a part of the Burrabazar
Burrabazar
Burrabazar is a neighbourhood in central Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is an assembly constituency. Burrabazar expanded from a yarn and textile market into the commercial nucleus of Kolkata and one of the largest wholesale markets in India...
Students' Congress.
Early career and Anamika years
Jalan started his career as a lawyer and subsequently headed a legal firm in Kolkata, and at the same time also worked both as a theatre actor and director.He started his acting career with play Naya Samaj in 1949 , followed by Samasya (1951) directed by Tarun Roy in 1951. He directed his play Ek Thi Rajkumari (1953), a children's play, written by Roy, in Hindi. This was followed by Konark (1954) by Jagdish Chandra Mathur and Chandragupta (1955) by Seth Govind Das. He continued to act in most of his plays, sometimes playing the lead and even into his later years.
He was the first theatre director to recognize the plays of Mohan Rakesh
Mohan Rakesh
Mohan Rakesh was one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani literary movement of the Hindi literature in the 1950s. He wrote the first modern Hindi play, Ashadh Ka Ek Din , which won a competition organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi...
, when he staged his Ashadh Ka Ek Din (One Day in Ashadh) in 1960 , which had a competition organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India.-History:...
in 1959, and was soon established as the first modern Hindi play. This was also a breakthrough play for Jalan as well, as for the first time he was able to showcase an in-depth study of the complexity of human existence, to critical acclaim. He subsequently staged Lehron Ke Rajhans (Swans of the Waves) in 1966 and Adhe Adhure (Halfway House) (1970), where he and his wife Chetna played the leads. His Hindi productions captured the magical realism of Bengali playwright Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit (1968), Pagla Ghora (Mad Horse) in 1971 in brought Sircar to national limelight. He was equally adept in handling harsh realism of Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Tendulkar was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marāthi...
' s Sakhārām Binder
Sakharam Binder
Sakharam Binder is a play by Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar and was first performed in 1972. It was banned in India in 1974. It was produced and directed by Kamlakar Sarang.-Synopsis:...
and Khamosh Adalat Jari Hai (Hindi version of Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe
Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe
Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe is a Marathi play written by playwright Vijay Tendulkar and first performed in 1967...
), Panchi Aise Aate Hain (Thus Arrive the Birds) from his Ashi Pakhare Yeti in Marathi in 1971, Gidhade (The Vultures) in 1973 and Kanyadan (1987).
His other plays include Kauva Chala Hans ki Chal, Gyandev Agnihotri's Shuturmurg (Ostrich) (1967) and a production of Romanian playwright Mihail Sebastian
Mihail Sebastian
-Life:Sebastian was born to a Jewish family in Brăila. After finishing his secondary studies, Sebastian went on to study law in Bucharest, but was soon attracted to the literary life and the exciting ideas of the new generation of Romanian intellectuals, as epitomized by the literary group...
's Breaking News as Chhapte chhapte (Going to Print) in 1963, in the arena format.
His production displayed his respect for the script as he didn't alter a word, and over the year he started a collaborative approach towards his productions with the playwright, a new trend in in Indian theatre. He often invited playwrights to the rehearsals, Mohan Rakesh who had been skeptical to excessive directorial influence on the integrity of the drama-in-performance, spent three weeks with the group, in Kolkata ahead of the 1966 production of Lehron Ke Rajhans, and even rewrote the third act several times, completed two days before the opening night of the production, and revised it yet again before its publication in late 1966 , and in time it became one of the important productive playwright-director relationship in Indian theatre. While working on Evam Indrajit he extensively collaborated with Sircar.
He co-founded theatre group Anamika in 1955 with Pratibha Aggarwal, a Hindi writer and a great granddaughter of Bhartendu Harishchandra, which played a pioneering role in the revival of Hindi theatre. , and remained with it till 1972, and during this period it created a large audience for Hindi theatre in Bengali speaking Kolkata. At the time, Usha Ganguly
Usha Ganguly
Usha Ganguly is an Indian theatre director-actor and activist, most known for her work in Hindi theatre in Kolkata in 1970s and 1980s. She founded Rangkarmee theatre group in 1976, known for its productions like Mahabhoj, Rudali, Court Martial, and Antaryatra. Apart from thespian Shyamanand...
of Rangkarmee was only other director, to be actively involved in Hindi theatre in the city, just as Satyadev Dubey
Satyadev Dubey
Satyadev Dubey is an Indian theatre director, actor, playwright, screenwriter, and film actor and director. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1971....
was in Bombay.
Padatik
He co-established the impresario institution Anamika Kala Sangam in 1967. Subsequently along with his wife Chetana Jalan, the well-known Kathak dancer and stage actress, and actor Kulbhushan KharbandaKulbhushan Kharbanda
Kulbhushan Kharbanda is an Indian actor, who worked in Hindi and Punjabi films, and is known as character Shakaal in Shaan inspired by the character of Blofeld from James Bond movies...
, he left Anamika in 1971 and established Padatik (literally foot-soldier) theatre group in 1972, of which he was the founding director. This gave him a chance to venture into bolder themes, like those in Vijay Tendukar's plays like
Gidhade (The Vultures) (1973) and Sakharam Binder (1979), and Mahashweta Devi's Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma (Mother of 1084) (1978), with his new venture he stepped beyond Indianism, modernism, or experimentalism. Padatik in the coming years, started inviting outside directors like, Ranjit Kapoor, Satyadev Dubey, Bennevitz, Rajinder Nath, and Rodney Marriot, and soon the group was performing three productions in a year. In time, dramatic speech and theatricality became the hallmark of Padatik plays and most notably Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit (And Indrajit) remembered for its stylized movement and speech.
Along with his wife he founded Padatik dance school in Kolkata, for classical as well as contemporary dance. He also remained associated with Natya Shodh Sasthan Kolkata, an archive of Indian theatre for many years. Long before trend government funded festivals started, he organized the first performing arts festival, a "Chhau Festival" bringing together three forms of Chhau dance
Chhau dance
thumb|A video of Chau dance in PuruliaChhau dance is a genre of Indian tribal martial dance which is popular in the Indian states of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal...
, i.e. Seraikella, Mayurbhanj, Purulia, together on one platform, in March 1977 in Kolkata. Padatik also organized workshops on dance, lec-dems of Gurus of Indian dance including Kelucharan Mohapatra, Vempati Chinna Satyam, Guru Bipin Singh, Birju Maharaj, apart from organizing three major international theatre, dance, martial arts conferences in which theatre personalities like Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
, Eugenio Barba
Eugenio Barba
Eugenio Barba is an Italian author and theatre director based in Denmark. He is the founder of the Odin Theatre and the International School of Theatre Anthropology, both located in Holstebro, Denmark.-Biography:...
, Tadashi Suzuki
Tadashi Suzuki
Tadashi Suzuki is a theatre director, writer and philosopher working out of Toga, Toyama, Japan. Suzuki is the founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga , organizer of Japan’s first international theatre festival , co-founder of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute in Saratoga...
, Richard Schechner
Richard Schechner
Richard Schechner is Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University , editor of TDR: The Drama Review, and artistic director of East Coast Artists. His BA is from Cornell University , MA from the University of Iowa , and PhD from Tulane University...
, Anna Halprin
Anna Halprin
Anna Halprin helped pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to herself as the breaker of modern dance. Halprin, along with her contemporaries such as Trisha Brown, Simone Forti, Yvonne Rainer, John Cage, and Robert Morris, collaborated and built a community based...
and leading theatre directors and actors from all over India, participated.
He also acted in Bengali productions, like Tughlaq (1972), a Bengali version of Girish Karnad
Girish Karnad
Girish Raghunath Karnad is a contemporary writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada language...
's play performed by Padatik under his own direction , for Pashchimbanga Natya Unnayan Samity, which featured stage actors, like Sombhu Mitra
Sombhu Mitra
Sombhu Mitra was an Indian film and stage actor, director, playwright and one of the pre-eminent Indian theatre personalities, especially Bengali theatre, where he is considered a pioneer. He remained associated with Indian People’s Theatre Association for a few years before founding Bohurupree...
, Debabrata Dutta 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...
. He is credited for not only reviving Hindi theatre in Kolkata, but also by performing plays by Bengali playwrights like Badal Sircar's Paagla Ghoda and Evam Indrajit in Hindi, bridging the gap between North Indian and Bengali theatre. He brought Kalidasa
Kalidasa
Kālidāsa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language...
`s Sanskrit play Abhijñānaśākuntalam
Abhijñānaśākuntalam
Abhijñānashākuntala or Abhijñānaśākuntalam) , is a well-known Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa. Its date is uncertain, but Kalidasa is often placed in the period between the 1st century BCE and 4th century CE....
as Sakuntala to stage in 1980 with lyrical dance movements of Odissi dance , and G. P. Deshpande`s politically charged Marathi-play Uddhwasta Dharmashala (A Man in Dark Times) in 1982.
He translated plays by Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
like Janta ka Shatru (An Enemy of the People
An Enemy of the People
An Enemy of the People is an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen wrote it in response to the public outcry against his play Ghosts, which at that time was considered scandalous...
) in 1959, Brecht
Brecht
Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...
, Raja Lear from Shakespeare's King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, and Moliere
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's The Bourgeois Gentleman and The School for Wives
The School for Wives
The School for Wives is a theatrical comedy written by the seventeenth century French playwright Molière and considered by some critics to be one of his finest achievements. It was first staged at the Palais Royal theatre on 26 December 1662 for the brother of the King...
. He adapted Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
, Ghare Baire (Home and Outside) in 1961, and dramatized Mahashweta Devi's classic novel Hazar Churashir Ma (Mother of 1084) as Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma in 1978. He later worked as the vice-chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India.-History:...
from 1999 to 2004., and as the chairman of the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi and Science City
Science City Kolkata
Science City, Kolkata is the largest science centre in the Indian subcontinent under National Council of Science Museums , Ministry of Culture, Government of India, is at the crossing of Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and J B S Haldane avenue, Kolkata...
and the Birla Industrial & Technological Museum
Birla Industrial & Technological Museum
Birla Industrial & Technological Museum , a unit under National Council of Science Museums [NCSM], Ministry of Culture, Government of India, is at Gurusaday road, Kolkata.-History:...
(BITM), Kolkata. He had also been governing body member of the National Council of Science Museums
National Council of Science Museums
National Council of Science Museums is an autonomous organization under Indian Ministry of Culture. It is the largest chain of science centers or museums under a single administrative umbrella in the world...
. He also directed Ramkatha Ram-Kahani (1995), performed by dancers from Padatik Dance Centre, under Chetna Jalan.
In 2005, he directed first and only film Eashwar Mime Co., an adaptation of Dibyendu Palit
Dibyendu Palit
Dibyendu Palit is a Bengali writer of poems, novels, and short stories. His first story Chandapatan was published in 1955 in the Sunday edition of Anandabazar Patrika....
's story, Mukhabhinoy, by Vijay Tendulkar. The film is story of a travelling mime company selling products and a writer's views upon its journey, it has two lead Ashish Vidyarthi
Ashish Vidyarthi
Ashish Vidyarthi is an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Hindi films and lately in South Indian films. He has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for film Drohkaal in 1995....
playing the role mime company's owner while Pawan Malhotra did the role of the writer. Though it didn't get commercial released during his lifetime, it was screened at Durban International Film Festival
Durban International Film Festival
The Durban International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It is one of the oldest and largest film festival in Southern African and presents over 200 screenings celebrating the best in South African, African and...
, the 3 Continents Festival and the Kolkata Film Festival
Kolkata Film Festival
The Kolkata Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Kolkata, India, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1995, it is second oldest international film festival in India. The festival is organized by West Bengal Film Centre under...
.
Nearly 42 years after he first presented Mohan Rakesh's Lehron Ke Rajhans, he presented a new version, at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav
Bharat Rang Mahotsav
Bharat Rang Mahotsav , or the National Theatre Festival, established in 1999, is the annual theatre festival of National School of Drama , New Delhi, India's premier theatre training institute of Govt. of India...
of the National School of Drama in 2009, to critical acclaim. The brochure of play reproduced two letters, one written by Jalan asking the playwright for clarifications and guidelines, and in the second the reply of Rakesh two months later, in fact after their discussions he rewrote third act.
He died after a long illness at Kolkata on 24 May 2010, survived by his wife and six children.
Legacy
His film Eashwar Mime Co., based on the art of mimeMime
The word mime is used to refer to a mime artist who uses a theatrical medium or performance art involving the acting out of a story through body motions without use of speech.Mime may also refer to:* Mime, an alternative word for lip sync...
, was premiered at India Habitat Centre
India Habitat Centre
The India Habitat Centre, located in New Delhi, India, was conceived to be a catalyst relationship between individuals and institutions working in habitat related areas to increase their effectiveness...
, New Delhi on August 2, 2010 , thereafter with a special screening on September 11, 2010 at Nandan
Nandan (Kolkata)
Nandan is a government sponsored centre in Calcutta, India for facilitating film awareness and includes a few comparatively large screens housed in an impressively architectured building. It shares its site with the Rabindra Sadan cultural centre. The complex, besides being a modern cinema and...
theatre in Kolkata, the film was commercially released. Padatik constituted the "Shyamanand Jalan National Youth Theatre Award" for original scripts from Indian playwrights aged between 18 and 25 years, in 2011.
On 4th December 2010, a book Shyamanand Jalan: A Pictorial Tribute by Madhuchhanda Chatterjee, was released at Rabindra Sadan
Rabindra Sadan
Rabindra Sadan is a cultural centre and theatre in Calcutta, located near the Nandan cinema and cultural complex and the Academy of Fine Arts on AJC Bose Road in South Kolkata. Construction began on 5 August 1961 and ended October 1967...
, Kolkata, followed by excerpts of some plays directed by him, enacted by actors he trained, or organised by Anamika Kala Sangam and Padatik. Also presented was Remembering Shyamanand by Rajinder Nath, Samik Bandyopadhyay, Pratibha Agrawal & others and a homage by Padatik, and 5th a Seminar titled, Kolkata Hindi Theatre and Shyamanand Jalan was held at the venue followed by a screening of excerpts from his works.
The 13th Bharat Rang Mahotsav
Bharat Rang Mahotsav
Bharat Rang Mahotsav , or the National Theatre Festival, established in 1999, is the annual theatre festival of National School of Drama , New Delhi, India's premier theatre training institute of Govt. of India...
, the annual theatre festival of National School of Drama
National School of Drama
National School of Drama is a theatre training institute situated at New Delhi, India, established . It is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It was set up in 1959 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and became an independent school in 1975...
featured a special section on him. On January 20, 2011 at Kamani Auditorium, Delhi, a retrospective-homage by Padatik, directed by Vinay Sharma, presented excerpts from five plays directed by Shyamanand Jalan, showcasing at least one representative work from each decade of the Padatik years, including Madhavi (2006), Ramkatha Ram-Kahani (1995), Adhey Adhurey (1983) and Sakharam Binder (1978).
Productions
- Ek Thi Rajkumari (1953)
- Konark (1954)
- Chandragupta (1955)
- Naye hath (New Hands) (1957)
- Janta ka Shatru (An Enemy of the PeopleAn Enemy of the PeopleAn Enemy of the People is an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen wrote it in response to the public outcry against his play Ghosts, which at that time was considered scandalous...
) (1959) - Ashadh Ka Ek DinAshadh Ka Ek DinAshadh Ka Ek Din is a debut Hindi play by Mohan Rakesh in 1958 and is considered the first Modern Hindi play. The play received a Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for best play in 1959 and has been staged by several prominent directors to critical acclaim...
(One Day in Ashad) (1960) - Ghare Baire (Home and Outside) (1961)
- Chhapte chhapte (Going to Print) (1963)
- Lehron Ke Rajhans (Swans of the Waves) (1966)
- Shuturmurg (Ostrich) (1967)
- Evam Indrajit (One more Indrajit) (1968)
- Adhe Adhure (Halfway House) (1970)
- Pagla Ghora (Mad Horse) (1971)
- Tughlaq (1972)
- Gidhade (The Vultures) (1973)
- Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma (Mother of 1084) (1978)
- Sakharam Binder (1979)
- Sakuntala (1980)
- Panchi Aise Aate Hain (Thus Arrive the Birds) (1981)
- Uddhwasta Dharmashala (A Man in Dark Times) (1982)
- Kanyadan (1987)
- Ramkatha Ram-Kahani (1995)
- Madhavi (2006)
- Lehron Ke Rajhans - New Version (2009)
Further reading
- Shyamanand Jalan: A Pictorial Tribute by Madhuchhanda Chatterjee. 2010.
- Remembering Shyamanand by Rajinder Nath, Samik Bandyopadhyay, Pratibha Agrawal & others.2010.