Laugh till i cry

Bengali plays have had such a gallery of great actors that it’s extremely difficult for me to choose five of my favourites among them. From Utpal Dutt, Rabi Ghose and Kharaj Mukherjee, Shankar Chakraborty, Subhasish Mukherjee, Kanchan Mullick, Rudranil Ghosh, Rajatava Dutta and Debranjan Nag — all of them have been jewels on the star-studded stage of Bengal. Needless to say, I am in a fix.
In France, an actor is expected to graduate from doing other roles to finally excelling in comedy.That’s the amount of importance given to this art form. Though I’d regard Sabitri Chatterjee as one of the finest actors in the world, I would still like to include her in this list. It’s not that her plays were comedies in the truest sense of the term. She has had the ability to create a humorous situation out of nothing. Sometimes, she did it with her sense of timing, pause or even the dialogues of silence. I remember a play I saw of her on Kashi Viswanath Mancha that had her co-actor saying: ‘Cholo tomake raater Kolkata dekhae’. Her retort was: ‘Deener Kolkata-i thik kore dekha holo na toh abar raater Kolkata dekhachho?’ Hearing this, the whole auditorium burst into laughter. Just a minute later, she’d do something that would immediately change the mood from comic to serious.
Mrinal Ghosh too had a similar ability. He has remained an unsung hero. Utpalda would tell me that if I really wanted to learn timing in comedy, I should train under him. ‘Amio majhe modhye or kachhe theke shikhi’ Utpalda had said. From Barricade and Titas Ekti Nodir Naam to Tiner Talowar and Kallol, Mrinalda had excelled on stage. I particularly loved his way of delivering one liners and ability to create humour out of serious moments.
What I liked most about Dwijen Bandopadhyay’s performances is his ability to create humour by playing on words. When we read the plays that he staged, it was a different experience. But when Dwijenda enacted his part, the role came alive and created a lot of humour.
How can I forget Kumar Roy? He has been an institution by himself. I remember his play, Life of Galileo, where one of his students came up to Galileo and said: ‘Apni ektu shanto hon’. The whole auditorium burst into laughter when he said: ‘Tumi ar ektu uttejito hou’.
This list will be incomplete without mentioning Manoj Mitra. What I admire about him is the humour he creates by allowing the exploited take on the role of the exploiters. While the laughter is generated very naturally, people also feel the pain and agony of the exploited.
I am sure I might have missed out on so many important names. As I had said in the beginning, there are some thousands of great actors who’ve excelled in comic roles. So, my apologies to all those whose names I might have missed out but who have definitely made me laugh till I could feel tears welling up in my eyes!