It is heartening and heartwarming to see large-scale theatre-in-education in good hands committed to sowing the seeds of the art form in children. The latest school to invest (literally, too) in an extravaganza involving hundreds of pupils, BSS (formerly known as Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan), pulled out all stops on their Platinum (actually platinum+5) Jubilee celebration with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the 2002 musical based on the hit movie, in turn derived from Ian Fleming’s children’s book. BSS relied on their girls and teachers for almost everything. Of course, they commissioned a professional director, Amlan Chaudhuri, to take charge and he did a marvellous job.
Fleming had inserted some farsighted contemporary topics in his good vs evil fantasy: a single father brings up his kids, and gets pitted against the land of Vulgaria that represses children; even the sci-fi creativity of an amphibious car that can fly (we may see such a vehicle come true in our lifetime). The only element that shows the libretto’s age is its encouragement of children to consume sweets, which BSS could have played down—or the teachers can issue a corrective to their classes! A 48-strong choir singing live under Dishari Chakraborty’s music direction, 30 dancers choreographed with discipline by Shalini Subedi, their footwork excelling between bamboo sticks on “Me Ol’ Bamboo”, and rich costumes designed by a team bedazzled.
Although every student contributed, I must name the main actors for sustained characterization: the Potts family (father-inventor Treena Samanta, daughter Alankrita Paanti, son Oindrila Mondal, grandpa Harshita Chandnani) and Truly Scrumptious (Gauravi Sarkar, who also performed an astonishing marionette dance in break style). And the showpiece, the working car designed by Sanchayan Ghosh which “flew” thanks to some major backstage machinery, a film-unit crane supervised by Barun Podder. Well done!
Chetana continues its children’s activities with Hibijibi Bāhini, written, directed and scored by Sujan Mukhopadhyay. A self-declared “non-sense production”, it runs riot merrily, mixing up the stories of Alibaba and Aladdin as well as young and adult actors.
Alibaba with his donkey opens the cave door and finds no hoard but old, worthless objects like the Communist Manifesto and a rusted lamp (from which the Genie later emerges). On the other side, the gang of thieves have no occupation in the cutthroat modern world, while a power-hungry magician enters their den to get the lamp, setting up a fight between the proletariat and capitalists. The inconsistencies may give us the heebie-jeebies, but we must suspend all questions because of the professed non-sense.
The kids’ acting and singing prove a delight, Mukhopadhyay’s lyrics and music more accessible than those of some other Bengali children’s productions, and his humour enjoyably self-targeted as well as political, though sometimes dwelling obsessively on excretory functions. He can improve the impact substantially by editing, especially the much-too-long first half and a lot of irrelevant dialogue. The black backcloth undermines the otherwise vivid colours appropriate to such fairytales by absorbing the rainbow hues of the costumes and lighting.
9 July 2025