Actors in Amader Kotha. Photo: Vipul Sangoi

LOSS and reconciliation, in love and one's relationship with his/her homeland, are two of the recurring themes in Amader Kotha, a series of three shows featuring plays and dramatised readings exploring the experiences of women of Indian and Bangladeshi origin.

In the first section, Opor Pokkho: The Other Side, based on a Taslima Nasreen novella, two sisters -- one who has left home for the city and the other who still lives with the family -- read out a series of private letters, telling each other of their separated lives. The letters basically contain accounts of what they have been doing, whom they have fallen out with and whom they are in love with. Through these letters, the audience gets an insight into their lives -- distinct yet united at the same time. Their sense of isolation, longing and restlessness compounded by the confines of stage, seemed to act as a metaphor for their insular world.

In the second chapter, Drishtipat Creative presented a dramatic reading of Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age, under the artistic direction of Leesa Gazi. The novel, set against the backdrop of the Liberation War, focuses on Rehana Haque, a mother who loses custody of her children after her husband's death. The performance ambitiously marches through the novel: Rehana's fight to win back her children; break out of the war and their desire to do something for their country. Excerpts from the novel deftly convey the realities of war -- first through the eyes of a mother whose main concern is protecting her offspring and then, the children themselves, through their emerging sense of patriotism. Intermittent inspirational songs brilliantly intensify these feelings.

The concluding chapter, Sakhi: Friend, what is love? what is pain?, is a melange of unrelated stories on women, which appear to be threaded together by common experiences of migration. In one part, a newly married Sylheti woman is dispatched to her “Londoni” husband, 30 years older than her. She promptly finds herself in the lonely confines of a kitchen, making his daily rice. It's an all too familiar story. But stories from the Sylheti community rarely get told on the stage. Giggles from the audience, prompted every time the innocent bride spoke in the Sylheti dialect, had more to do with familiarity and it being a novelty to hear, rather than directed at her sad state of affairs. Each of the plays try to steer away from anything too dark that would convey victimisation, by bringing in colourful dance sequences and songs to encourage a sense of hope and resilience in the lives of these women in their new homes.

The event, a collaborative effort by London-based arts company Baithak and the creative wing of human rights group Drishtipat, should be applauded for putting on such an event. More aesthetically pleasing productions are quite possibly on the way, as both Sangeeta Datta, founder of Baithak, and Eeshita Azad, director of Drishtipat Creative, expressed interest in future collaborations.

All three chapters are firmly rooted in Bengal, but performed by artistes who live in Britain. It should be mentioned that Shirin Khan, the event's promoter, managed to bring together artistes from both West Bengal and Bangladesh for the first time in this country. For some in the audience, the performances roused feelings of nostalgia for a cultural homeland. And for others it was a journey into exoticism.



The writer is a contributor to Daily Independent, London.