Yet images are born: Jibananda and the theatre of rituals

Shudrka Hyderabad production brings on their latest production, Phiribar Poth Nai (No Way Out), to Kolkata. Performed on the 5 September, the play is a meditation on the poetry and inner world of Jibanananda Das.

- MOHUL BHATTACHARYA

Shudrka Hyderabad production brings on their latest production, Phiribar Poth Nai (No Way Out), to Kolkata. Performed on the 5 September, the play is a meditation on the poetry and inner world of Jibanananda Das. The play is written and directed by Swapan Mondal, starring Souravi, Sawan, and Sohini. Light design has been done by Joydeep Roy, stage design by Monali and Swapan, and music by Abhimonyu, Swapan, and Dwijoy.

Jibanananda Das was a voice that stood distinct in the modern period of the world. Writing contemporarily to Tagore and Nazrul, Das did not let their style of poetry influence his works. He remained modern, imagery-heavy, and surprisingly rustic in an urban setting. This work is not a biography but a ritual of listening: an act of return to a poet whose life and literature remain profoundly relevant to our time of ecological grief, existential fragmentation, and longing for connection.

Created by Shudrka Hyderabad Shilpitirtha Trust (alias Shudrka Hyderabad) in 2024 to mark the poet's 125th birth anniversary,