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Satyameva
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Satyameva
"Satyameva Jayate" - a phrase from the Mundaka Upanishad is the
national motto of India and all Indians. Literally it means, "truth
alone prevails" - implying that truth is all that we should strive
for, since truth only can lead us to success and happiness. But often
this hypothesis has been proven wrong. Through bitter life experiences
we all discover that "truth" hardly leads us anywhere - it is the
"untruth", the "false" and "deceit" that we need to master in order
to attain our goals and objectives. Or is it that our goals and
objectives need to be re-examined? Are we chasing the right goals?
Goals for which we do not have to rely on the "false" - goals that can
truly be achieved by truth alone? Or is it that "truth" is nothing but an illusion, a "fake" notion that we like to believe to be "true"?
"Satyameva", a play written by Sudipta Bhawmik, tries to explore this
age old question in a setting in North America where the immigrant
Indian population tries to deal with this issue in their everyday
lives.
Sanjoy, a young software professional, has arrived in the "land of
opportunity" for just over six months and works for a software body
shopping company "InterSoft" owned and operated by Bill (a Bengali
American living in the States for over thirty years.) On the day of
the play Bill fires Sanjoy and asks him to go back to India. Sanjoy,
however, is not happy with this decision and refuses to oblige. He
informs Bill that he is not going to return to India under any
circumstances. He states that returning to India is synonymous to
signing a death warrant for himself. He cannot subject himself to such
a grave risk. And to justify himself, and to win his ultimate motive,
he has to make a choice between truth or deceit.
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Cast
Bill : Sudipta Bhawmik/Sankar Ghoshal (Kolkata Show)
Sanjoy : Pinaki Dutta/Indranil Mukherjee (Kolkata Show)
Written by Sudipta Bhawmik
Directed by Indranil Mukherjee /Sudipta Bhawmik (Kolkata Show)
Produced by Ethnomedia Center for Theater Arts (ECTA)
Presented in Kolkata by Ganakrishti
Review Snippets
The Bengali-American group Ethnomedia from New Jersey, which
stunned Calcutta last year with Ron, returned for the world premiere
of dramatist-director Sudipta Bhawmik's Satyameva. A senior executive
body-shopping software engineers fires his incompetent new recruit,
who pleads that he should not be sent back to India. By a remarkable
plot of twists and turns Bhawmik conveys older Bengalis' nostalgia
for their birthplace and younger Bengalis' desire to emigrate to
America. Sankar Ghoshal and Indranil Mukherjee respectively give
realistic portrayals of these parts, but the playwright's
craftsmanship tends to get the better of heartfelt emotions, which we
had found in Ron. - Ananda Lal, Telegraph, Kolkata
"Truth Trapped in the Web of Untruth" : ...The entire play was
tightly and excellently composed.... through the dialogs and exchanges
between the only two characters on stage the play reveals itself in
multiple dimensions.....Excellent acting by both the
performers.....Thanks to Ethnomedia and Ganakrishti for this excellent
presentation. - Piyali Homchoudhuri, Sangbad Pratidin, Kolkata
"Excellent and a very touching play" - Phire Dekha, Kolkata
"One's own existence in the present from one's past, and all along
this journey to find the future from the past comes out a sense of
belonging - of one's own homeland, of one's own language... Sudipta
Bhawmik's new play Satyameva brings forth this strong sentiment
through the body language and expression of its central character Bill
or Biplab Mukhopadyay, especially in the last scene when his employee
Sanjoy decides to return to face his own struggles in his own
homeland." - India Doot, Kolkata
Local Press Links
Home News Trubune, January 17, 2008 - By Rutu Jha
br>
Created on 2007-08-17 19:55:49 by sudipta
Updated on 2008-01-17 15:30:07 by sudipta
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