Khadda is a world apart; in fact, the invitation to the show is a novelty in itself. The hand-written invite is a reproduction of a quarter-anna East India Post Card with Queen Victoria’s head doubling as the postage stamp. Inspired by “Uro Chithi”, a short story by Syed Mustafa Siraj, this Amar Gangopadhyay play was first produced by Howrah-based NatRanga in 1979. Sushanta Bandopadhyay directed it. The group, now headed by Sohan Bandopadhyay, revived it recently, and the invite ushered the audience into a lost world.
The world of Khadda now seems a like a prelapsarian one where the communities live in perfect harmony, where the village chief behaves a like an elderly member of a joint family, where agriculture is the way of life, where entertainment is an easy extension of Shaivite rituals and it matters little that the Shiva impersonator has a Muslim name. Sohan Bandopadhyay, the director who also plays the narrator, utilises the multi-layered stage designed by Saumik and Piyali which keeps the focus firmly around the old banyan tree on stage left and leaves an exit route along the backstage rostrum that goes up from stage right. The colour palette of the costumes, complemented by Badal Das’s light design, makes Khadda a visual delight.
The entry of a khaki-clad postman (Palash Das) changes the tone of the play. As the postman reads out a postcard which refers to the fatal illness of a man — presumably from the village but unknown to all — the villagers decide to send a rescue team to Khadda where the man now lives. But where is Khadda? As the clueless rescue team returns empty-handed, the play takes a mysterious turn. The wisdom of veterans like Salma Chachi (Ananya Bose) leads to a metaphysical ending.
To his credit, Bandopadhyay elicits life-like performances from the Nat-Ranga cast — an eclectic blend of seasoned actors and youngsters. Siraj had not made the locale of the tale clear and Bandopadhyay refuses to pinpoint any either. It works, mostly. The position of a woman who has multiple failed marriages — played with enigmatic brilliance by Mousumi Sengupta — in a predominantly Muslim village of undivided Bengal makes Khadda a fascinating watch.
