Bratya Basu

Early life

Bratya Basu was born in Calcutta to noted theater personality and professor, Dr. Bishnu Basu and writer & educational administrator Dr. Neetika Basu. His early name was Bratyabrata Basu Roy Chowdhury .He belongs from "Basu Roy Chowdhury" Family at Ulpur (Now In Faridpur, Bangladesh) He studied Bangla at Presidency College and Calcutta University

Career

Bratya Basu is an accomplished theatre artist, a playwright, a director. He got passionately involved with Bengali theatre and drama from a very young age. He has become one of the leading personalities in the arena of Bengali theatre in the 21st century, He stands out as a playwright, director and an actor. He, however, likes to describe himself as a theatre worker and has served Bengali theatre for nearly 30 years. Basu started his career as a sound operator for the theatre group Ganakrishti and soon started writing and directing plays with the group. The themes of his writings focus on political fantasy, nature-human relationships, connection between music and life, ethical values and its lack, conflict between love and revolt, bonding between time and culture, etc. While his diverse plays achieved enormous success on stage, they have also succeeded in stirring the emotional cords of innumerable hearts.

Bratya Basu joined ''City College'', Kolkata as an assistant professor in the department of Bengali. But his passion for theatre could not confine him to the teacher's room of a college. He launched his career as a dramatist with the play Ashaleen (1996) (or Ora Pnachjon?), described by theatre critics as the first postmodernist Bengali play. His noted plays thereafter include Aranyadeb, Shahar Yaar, Virus-M, Winkle-Twinkle, etc. These plays are not only popular but also unique in different genres of modern literary theatre and subject to manifold interpretations. His other important plays include Ruddhasangeet, Chatushkon, Hemlat - the Prince of Garanhata, Krishna Gahobar, Bikele Bhorer Sorshey Phool, Supari Killer, Boma etc. A compilation of his plays has been published in three volumes in 2004, 2010 and in 2016 respectively. He has even directed three films - Raasta, Teesta, Tara and acted in many films which include Kaalbela, Icchey, Sthaniyo Sambad, Hemlock Society, Muktodhara etc. Basu has bagged many awards and recognitions. Some of them include the Shyamal Sen Memorial award (1998), Dishari Award (2000), and Satyen Mitra Award (2001, 2003, 2004).

Hemlat, The Prince of Garanhata has won the critical acclaims from academic researchers for the adaptation. Sam Kolodezh of the University of California, Irvine, Drama and theatre heaped praise on Bratya’s adaptation. Formerly Associate Professor, Kuwait University and a Life-member of Shakespeare Society of Eastern India, Antony Johae is so moved by the contemporary Indianization of Shakespear’s mastertext that he lectured across India on Hemlat. Mr. Johae has contributed a research paper on Hemlat in the Vol-V, No.VIII of The International Journal of Cultural Studies and Social Sciences, edited by Dr Prof Amitava Roy, formerly Shakespeare Professor of Rabindra Bharati University and president and co founder of Shakespeare Society of Easter India and Prof Ronan Paterson, an actor, director and a producer for theatre, film in Britain and Ireland and an extensive writer on Shakespeare.

Bratya Basu has created his own space in contemporary theatre by moving beyond its existing boundaries. He has formed the theatre group Bratyajon in 2008. The first theatrical production of Bratyajon was Ruddhasangeet (2009), a play on the Rabindrasangeet exponent Debabrata Biswas’s journey of bitter struggle throughout his life in the prevailing system. The play received instant critical and popular acclaim and has so far staged more than a record 150 shows to packed houses.

List of Plays Written and Directed by Bratya Basu:

List of Plays Written by Bratya Basu, directed and produced by other theatre groups:

List of other Plays Directed by Bratya Basu :

List of Short Plays Written by Bratya Basu:

List of Plays Bratya Basu acted, directed and produced by other theatre groups:

List of Books Written by Bratya Basu:

List of translated Books of Bratya Basu:

List of Books on Bratya Basu:

List of films Bratya Basu acted:

Political career

Bratya Basu attached with the Trinamul Congress as intellectual from the time of Nandigram land acquisition issue. Then he fought the West Bengal Assembly polls 2011 on a Trinamool Congress ticket against a heavyweight CPI(M) Minister, Gautam Deb from the Dum Dum (Vidhan Sabha constituency) and won. He was made Minister for Higher Education and School Education Department, West Bengal in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet. He has decided to launch a survey to get a correct picture of the state’s higher education situation. A committee of eminent scholars will advise him on curriculum improvement.

Kalindi Bratyajon

Bratyajon, a Bengali group theatre, is the brainchild of ace playwright and actor-director Bratya Basu. He has formed and steered the group from 2008. The productions under the banner of Bratyajon have been influenced by the learning, motivation, inspiration and experiences of the renowned playwright and theatre artist himself. Some of the important productions of Bratyajon are Ruddhasangeet (2009), Canvasser (2011), Byomkesh (2011), Cinemar Moto (2013), Ke?(2014), Boma (2015). Apart from theatrical production, the group is active in many associated fields. Ruddhasangeet was performed on stage a record 150th time at the Academy of Fine arts in front of a packed house on 6 February 2017. With his rich experience of directing plays, Bratya Basu, has led from the front to stage theatres in urban areas and at different metro cities in India and different parts of other countries throughout the year. For Bratya Basu, theatre is an exciting medium which requires its participants to be passionate about it. One should not do theatre just because he has nothing else to do. It is the drive within, an extremely enthusiastic attitude which can bring out the best in a theatre worker. Basu respects those who carry this zeal and are open to experimenting with this medium. He has continued to encourage young theatre enthusiasts not just by giving them opportunities in his group at different levels, but also by thinking substantially for them in terms of their economic sustainability. For him, theatre is still a marginalized arena, where artists continue to struggle to earn a respectable living, His aim is to work actively and end this limitation of theatre by all means.

National and Global Outreach

The vision of Bratyajon is to create a spirit of vibrant theatre among theatre lovers worldwide with a comprehensive global outreach to all sections of society. An important step ahead in this direction has been to organize an Annual International Theatre Festival, an event which has commenced from the year 2011. Though conducted in Kolkata the festival has a national and global reach with stage performances from theatre groups across the country and abroad. The countries participated in this yearly festival were UK, France, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Thailand, Lithuania, Iraq and our neighbouring countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In the festival, Bratyajon confers the Bishnu Basu Memorial Award, to grant recognition and give cash prize to motivate young artists in the world of theatre. The awardees are Mr. Kaushik Sen (noted Bengali Theatre artiste) in 2010, Mr. Baharul Islam (noted Asamese theatre artiste) in 2012, Mr. Atul Pethe (Noted Maharashtrian theatre artist) in 2013, Mr. Manish Mitra (noted Bengali Theatre artiste) in 2014, Mr. Debasish Roy (noted Bengali theatre artiste) in 2015, Mr. Subodh Patnaik (noted Odiya Theatre artiste) in 2016. We also organize ‘Bishnu Basu Memorial Lectures’in memory of his father Dr. Bishnu Basu and ‘Nitika Basu Memorial Lectures’ in memory of his mother, Dr. Nitika Basu where noted theatre personalities and writers from different corners of the nation have delivered talks. The transcriptions of these speeches are published in the bi-annual theatre journal (Bratyajon Natyapatra) which is an important component in the dissemination process.

Publication

An important activity for Bratyajon is to participate in the book fair with an intention to expand theatre movement by disseminating its publications to the participants of the Kolkata International Book Fair, each year. Bratyajon publishes many books on theatre and its development in the state and in the country authored by various experts in the field. The book fair provides a platform for the formal launching of these volumes. The fair also makes available a space for interaction with individuals who are interested to know about the activities of the theatre, in general and the group, in particular.

TRAINING AND MOTIVATION

Though theatre has larger social and intellectual objectives, an important component of theatre is enhancement of basic technicalities and skills of acting and production of its workers. Moreover, participation in a theatre group helps one appreciate group-level participation, cooperation and communication.

Bratyajon conducts various workshops for training and motivation of budding artists of different age-groups from children to adults which focus on development of an artist. These workshops are beneficial for both members of the group as well as non-members with a special emphasis on the youth. The activities in these workshops focus on skill enhancement through vocal training, classes on body movements and instilling the essence of acting and training in production. In addition, there are public programs which comprise panel discussions and presentations. These help in raising the confidence level of participants and increasing their knowledge base.

Filmography

List of Films Directed by Bratya Basu: