The many avatars of Noti Binodini

Isn`t it a bit strange that no proscenium to stage plays in metro cities are named after a woman – be it a yesteryear actress or singer or director? 

For example, Kolkata, believed to be the theatre capital of India, has many proscenium spaces. But all named after famous theatre persons or poets or playwrights. All men and no woman at all. There is Madhusudan Mancha named after Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Nazrul Mancha, named after Kobi Nazrul Islam, Rabindra Sadan, named after Rabindranath Tagore. In Mumbai, similarly, we have the Gadkdari Rangayatan, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, the Nehru Centre, the Prithvi Theatre and so on. In Delhi, they have the Kamani Auditorium, Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, National School of Drama, India, Habitat Centre and so on and so forth. The sole exception is that, after the passing away of the famous doyen of Hindi theatre group Rangakarmee, founded by the late Usha Ganguly two small auditoriums in the same premises in Kolkata have been re-christened Binodini-Keya Mancha and Usha Ganguly Mancha. But this is not widely known.

Noti Binodini or Binodini Dasi was a theatre actress of the Bengali stage who demanded that a new theatre be named after her as ‘B-Theatre.’ But this did not happen because the powers-that-be refused to register the name after a theatre actress. Actresses in those days were considered social outcasts. 

The appearance of the native actresses on stage became a practice only from the latter half of the eighteenth century. Earlier, men would enact the female characters. Though a steep contrast between the social life of the Europeans and the Indians valorised post the Revolt of 1857, the theatre space, became one of the major grounds where these two strands — the coloniser and the colonised — would come together. The aim of these performances was to entertain men during their evening rendezvous and leisure pursuits. 

Biographical or autobiographical plays are not very popular they say. But Binodini Dasi (1863-1941), or Noti

Another scene from ‘Binodini Opera’

Binodini is an exception. Plays on her life have been staged over and over for a long time because the story of her life is more dramatic and has more twists and turns than a film script. The ‘nati’ (noti in Bengali) in her name means ‘actress.’ As an actress, Binodini carved an immortal place in the history of Bengali theatre not only for her talent and versatility, but also for the sacrifices she made in the cause of theatre. She documented the story of her life in two separate autobiographies, Aamar Katha (My Story) and Aamar Abhinetri Jeebon (My Life as an Actress.) Kali for Women has published the English translations by Rimli Bhattacharya. She was perhaps the only literate actress of her time though her roots lay in the red light lanes of Kolkata. 

When the theatre company that took Binodini to starry heights began to collapse, in 1883, her mentor, Natya Samrat Girish Ghosh persuaded her to become the mistress of Gurmukh Rai, a rich Marwari businessman who was a devoted fan of Binodini. The actress, hating to go back to her old life of prostitution, rejected the idea. But her love for the stage and empathy for her peers whose lives were endangered, won in the end and she succumbed to pressure. Instead of accepting a cheque for Rs.50,000 from Gurmukh Rai, Binodini asked him to build a theatre.

Rai, besotted with Binodini, agreed at once, but on condition that the theatre hall would be named B-Theatre, after the first letter of Binodini’s name. But after the theatre’s name was registered, Binodini was shocked to discover that her name was rejected in favour of another name, Star, in 1884. Her peers and mentor had decided that a theatre house named after a prostitute would fail to draw audience for their plays.

The latest addition to this plethora of proscenium and celluloid representations of the life and works of Noti Binodini comes across in the most recent production called Binodini Opera produced by Cinnamon Media and Events and directed by Abanti Chakraborty with noted National Award-winning actress of the stage and screen, Sudipta Chakraborty portraying the title role. Why the name “Opera” and not just Noti Binodini? Because the play of two hours has been conceived, executed and presented as an “opera” defined as “a drama set to music and made up of vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and orchestral overtures and interludes.” An “overture” in this case, is the orchestral introduction to a musical dramatic work while an “interlude” is described as “a musical composition inserted between the parts of a longer composition, a drama.” 

The play opens with a long overture with a female chorus singing and dancing away to merriment introducing the prima donna Binodini who steps in grandly in a tiered stage that allows for vertical mobility with hangings from the ceiling of the proscenium used by the characters to add dimension to their movements and to the characters. The songs are very good and even the dialogues are often in rhyme. But as the sound system was less than perfect, the lines were not very clear to the audience. The art direction is also good. The play was longish to hook the audience for long. A bit of clipping in the beginning and the end might make the finished production more edgy and sharp. 

Even within their limited footage, the actors have performed very well with special reference to Sujan Mukherjee as Gurmukh Rai who elevates the character to a higher plane with the physical expression of his passion for Binodini. Padmanabha Dasgupta as Kumar one of Binodini’s admirers, is good but the brief abstract from Shakespeare’s Othello seemed a bit out-of-place. Abhijit Guha does not fit into the dignified personality of Girish Ghosh mainly because of his physique and his looks which strip the character of some of the dignity it demands. All these are neutralised by the persona, the movements, the electric performance of Binodini by Sudipta Chakraborty.  

Till date, of all the various performances of Noti Binodini witnessed over the years, I will still back Nati Binodini (Hindi) by Theatre and Television Associates of Delhi. Directed by Amal Allana, it is a radical departure from the norm that presented not one but five different actresses playing Binodini on the stage at the same time. One of them was the old and doddering Binodini in the ‘present’, while the others — part of the flashback — appeared while she was writing her autobiographies. The four wore identical costumes and make-up, representing different ages and phases the girl went through till she flowered into an actress and then left the stage. It was a brilliantly structured play with a split-level set and mood lighting, embellished by fine acting and music. But the over-weepy and dodderingly old Binodini took away from the character the strength she was known for.

Till today, the story of Binodini Dasi remains an enigma because the end remains as mysterious as her life was. Did she voluntarily walk away from the stage one fine day and was never heard of again? Or, did she remain in the wings as a guide and teacher, not stepping into the stage again? Or, did she follow Thakur Ramkrishna Paramhamsa when he walked up to her after her sterling performance as Sri Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in a play with the same title?
No one knows.