Badal Sircar: Street theatre, resurgence and memories

Apeejay Bangla Literary Utsav hosted Samik Bandopadhyay and Anjan Dutt at the Oxford Bookstore for a session of storytelling on the legendary theatre artist, dramatist, civil engineer, and actor Badal Sirkar. 2025 has been a year of utmost significance. Many of the stalwarts of Bengal, art, songs, and theatres have turned 100 this year. The session thus promised introspection and deep conversations between two people who had been closely associated with the man himself.

- MOHUL BHATTACHARYA

Samik Bandopadhyay, theatre critic, scholar, started with, "Badal Sirkar has been dead for over two decades now. Thus, criticism, thought, and discussion on his life have progressed a lot. So, 45 minutes on this man is nearly not enough. Anjan and I have seen Sirkar in two very different ways. So, I will start as I have seen him. I can spot five versions of Sirkar when I see the life of this man. They are almost very different characters."

Bandopadhyay explained how Sirkar had no attraction to theatre or plays in his student life. Having taken five very long and deep interviews of the man, Bandopadhyay has been a keen observer of Sirkar's life. Bandopadhyay took the first interview in 1984 and the last one in the middle of the 90s. "Sirkar had become tired, his theatre spark dried up, and he had become weak and frail. This is when he started writing his autobiography. The four-part autobiography included his travelogue, his foreign tour and the letters he sent to his closest friend. He is somewhat measuring his life, as if life has ended, and he is now recalling it through a glass window."