BENGALURU : Following the path taken by theatre houses world over during this pandemic, Prataya Saha and Shatarupa Bhattacharyya decided to go digital with their critically-acclaimed play, Chitraa. In this month of Rabindra Jayanti, Saha and Bhattacharyya have given a cinematic touch to Rabindranath Tagore’s famous work, Chitrangada, which will be premiered on May 28. “There have been multiple renditions of the play but this one has a hybridised fusion structure: contemporary comedy interlaced with the untouched original romantic scenes by Tagore,” he says.
The story from the Mahabharata revolves around Arjuna, who, after roaming the jungles, reaches Manipur which is ruled by princess Chitra, a woman brought up as a fierce warrior and archer. She meets Arjuna and falls in love with him but he refuses to marry her. A dejected Chitra seeks the help of God Madana to change her into a more conventionally feminine, fair and beautiful woman. After the boon, she transforms and comes to Arjuna again as a completely different woman. Will Arjuna accept her? “The play delves into pressure and expectations of a patriarchal society on women and raises some important questions for the audience to ponder upon,” Saha says.
A cross between a play and film, Saha points out that the loud body language and gestures of theatre have had to be mellowed for the purpose of film. “The four actors – Anshulika Kapoor (Surupa), Archana Kariappa (Kurupa), Surya Vasishta (Arjuna), and Subhabrata Kundu (Madana) – were each asked to record their parts which were then merged and edited to ensure continuity,” says Saha who has been working on this project over the last 10-12 days. The film will be screened on their social media platforms, including their Instagram feed(@redpolkaproductions).
Spain calling
In addition to his theatre-cinema project, Saha’s recently completed short film, titled Slapped, has been selected for screening at Marbella International Film Festival’s Grounded category. The project features films made in isolation while adhering to physical distancing norms during the pandemic.
The team relied on Zoom, with two days going into scheduling alone. Revolving around a woman in an abusive relationship, the four-long film took 22 hours to shoot. “In normal circumstances, it would have taken us just six hours. But we also had to explain the technicalities of setting up the camera to the actor and had to stay present on video call so she could show us the settings,” explains the 33-year-old.
“We had to be crazily patient but it all added up when the film got selected for the festival,” says Saha, who worked on it with Singapore-based screenwriter Tanuj Khosla and Kerala-based editor and cinematographer Abhishekh Saravanan. The film’s producer Anshulika Kapoor, actor Moumi Guha and colourist Jai Mangal Sharma are based in Bengaluru. Like his previous projects – including the short film, The Good Wife, which has won 13 awards and featured at 22 film festivals – Slapped too has a women-centric theme. “Gender-based subjugations are the same across borders,” says Saha, whose film will be screened at the festival between October 7 and 11 this year. (With inputs from Simran Ahuja)