SUKHER KHONJE

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Credit must be given to Chalchitra for discovering the works of Viktor Rozov, an important Russian dramatist whose constant projection of the disgruntled younger generation and criticism of misplaced social values should have endeared him to Bengali directors long ago (but then contemporary Bengali theatre is not known for its imagination).

Sukher Khonje (Rabindra Sadan, June 16) is based on Rozov’s famous 1955 play In Search of Joy, in which the boy Oleg demolished his sister-in-law’s furniture collection with his father’s sabre, in a stunning display of rebellion that shocked Soviet audiences. Unfortunately, adapter-director Ashish Majumdar is unable to infuse his group with Rozov’s spirit of revolution against crass philistinism and middlebrow complacence. He also sentimentalizes Rozov’s faith in the power of love, consequently making the drama much more conventional than it really is.

(From The Telegraph, 23 July 1993)