JAGANNATH BY ARUN MUKHOPADHYAY

By MTG editorial

Host-A-Performance | Schedule

Writer : Arun Mukhopadhyay

Director : Arun Mukhopadhyay

Cast : Suman Mukhopadhyay & Sujan Mukhopadhyay

Kahaniyaan presents the last show of the iconic play of Bengali Theatre, Jagannath by Arun Mukhopadhyay, acted by Suman Mukhopadhyay, Sujan Mukhopadhyay & others.
About half a century ago Jagannath was inspired by the novella titled The True Story of Ah-Q by Chinese writer Lu Xun.
“Jagannath is the kind of person you will find in every age and era. He is an elemental character, beyond the boundaries of time and space,” Arun Mukhopadhyay had said of his legendary play, Jagannath of Chetana.
Created in 1977, Jagannath unfolds in a village in pre-Independent India and has an unlikely protagonist, a poor villager who is an underdog in every way. Around him, though, the embers of dissent and protest have begun to flame against the zamindar.
Mukhopadhyay’s Jagannath is a poor, uneducated villager:
“By nature he was cowardly, inherently lazy. All the villagers disregarded him and people of higher ranks did not even consider him to be a human being. No matter what wrongful or unjust treatment he was subjected to, there was no inclination in him to protest or resist. He was used to accepting everything silently—a slavish mentality was ingrained in him” (Mukhopadhyay 1987, 120-121, translation mine).
Jagannath is beaten out of his job at the zamindar (landlord) Das Babu’s residence after he boasts somewhere that he being a ‘Das’ too, is related to Das Babu. His arch-enemy Nanda gets the job. Nanda is the only person Jagannath can fight with, openly. He accepts his humiliation at the hands of Das Babu and others of his rank, but cannot do the same for Nanda, as he marks Nanda as one with a status similar to him.

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