Dramatist Sircar dies

Sircar made his mark as a playwright whose plays spoke of challenging the system.

And have faith,in the road. The endless road,no shrine for us. No God for us,but the road. The endless road.

Dramatist Badal Sircar,who died at his north Kolkata residence on Friday,wrote these lines for his play Evam Indrajit in 1963 when he was in Nigeria and the production of the play in 1967 marked the arrival of his art. Sircar made his mark as a playwright whose plays spoke of challenging the system and the hypocrisy of the daily mundane.

Born in 1925 as Sudhindranath Sircar and later rechristened as Badal,he trained himself as a civil engineer from the reputed Bengal Engineering College,Shibpur and joined work as a town planner. He soon moved to England and then Nigeria in search of better avenues. His stay in London initiated him into theatre and acting.

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While still in Nigeria,Sircar wrote Evam Indrajit that would mark his rebellious beginning. Years later,he shook the theatre domain in the country with the establishment of Third Theatre by forming his own group Shatabdi and their first production was Evam Indrajit. Sircar added a new realism to the contemporary body of work as there was no makeup and costumes in his plays and the audience also participated in the act.

He was a pioneer and a multi-faceted cultural personality. His works spoke of peoples conditions. We were honoured to have a rebellious figure like him in our department, says Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta,professor of Comparative Literature,Jadavpur University.

Not known to many,Sircar was 67-year-old when he completed his Masters of Arts in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University in 1992.

Some of his prominent works include Baaki Itihaas,Pralap,Pagla Ghoda,Shesh Naai and Sagina Mahato,among others. He received the Padma Shree in 1972 and the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1968 and a Ratna Sadasya fellowship. He,however,declined the Padma Bhusan in 2010.