Partha Pratim: When silence says it all

9 November 2009, 17:00 PM

Sadya Afreen Mallick, from Paris

Top right: Partha Pratim Majumder with his mentor Marcel Marceau (left); Below: The writer (right) with the artiste.

The distant beam from the Eiffel Tower flashed as we made ourselves comfortable at the apartment of the internationally noted artiste Partha Pratim Majumder. Our weeklong stay at Paris was almost coming to an end. As fascinating as it was visiting the Versailles Palace, The Louvre, The Opera House, Momart or the Bateaux-Mouches across the Seine, it was time for a different treat. We were invited to dinner with Majumder, the world-renowned mime artiste from Bangladesh, who had moved to France nearly thirty years ago. Majumder had travelled the world and enthralled audiences across continents. He is a recipient of Master of Mime award from Malaysia where he worked for the deaf and dumb school and a Master of Mime award from Jogesh Mime Academy, India. Recently, his troupe won the prestigious Molliere award for the play "Cochons D'Inde", a play that he had choreographed. Besides the many awards and artefacts that were displayed proudly on the cabinet, what stood out most were two hand drawn pictures of his mentor, the one and only Marcel Marceau. Our host, although far from his homeland, was dressed in traditional khadi panjabi and had prepared a traditional Bangladeshi cuisine for us. Soon we were transported into his world of mime and the story of his rise to fame. Majumder arrived in Paris in 1981 on a short-term scholarship to study mime. One day he went to an open-air mime performance of Marcel Marceau. Majumder was overwhelmed and joined the hundreds of people who had queued at the end of the show for an autograph of the great master. In his haste, Majumder had grabbed a brochure for the autograph, which as luck would have it, had a picture of Majumder performing mime. As Marcel flipped over a few pages, the picture caught Marcel's eye. “You have mime in your country?” he was inquisitive. Marcel wanted to know about the oriental art form and asked Majumder to drop by at his academy. “The opportunity seemed heaven sent. Every year 300-400 students applied for scholarship where only 10 got a chance to train under Marcel,” said Majumder. “My friends Shahabuddin and Kalidas Karmakar didn't believe me until they accompanied me to the academy where I met the maestro again. Here I was talking face to face with one of the living legends of mime whose only peer was possibly none other than Charlie Chaplin in movies,” Majumder paused. Once at the academy, Marcel showed deep interest in the steps that defined oriental mime. ''Your feet need to be lighter like a ballerina and not stamp on the stage,” Marcel had said on the very first day in front of his students. It was once in a lifetime opportunity to train under the maestro and for the next three years Majumder put in twelve hours of gruelling work everyday and travelled all over the world with Marcel and his troupe. “Marcel maintained an extra ordinary schedule, performing around 300 shows per year around the world, and I was privileged to be able to perform with him,” Majumder's eyes shone with pride. For the years to follow, Majumder not only learnt corporeal mime but also drama, ballet, modern dance, normal and theatrical acrobatics, sword and stick fighting as well. During his second year of study, at the annual show at the academy Majumder received award for the best performance. In the next year, he partnered with another student to perform an 11-minute mimodrama "Waiting for Godot" by Becket for which he received wide response too. After he completed the three-year course he stayed on with Marcel and worked on a research project which incorporated elements of Indian dancing and culture into modern mime. They co-authored the thesis “Oriental and Occidental Mime”, which occupies a prominent place in mime literature. Marcel's performances took a new dimension when he added certain hand movements from the Indian dances such as Kathakali, Bharatnatyam and more, while replicating a butterfly or a snake, added Majumder. A patriot at heart, Majumder requested the maestro to add the name of Bangladesh on the poster during a tour in 1983 in Europe. This not only made Majumder proud but also his fellow citizens who came from far and across to see him perform. Majumder mentioned, “The existence of an entire art form in which body elements, facial expressions and physical gestures dominated the show, fascinated me beyond words. I first learnt the techniques from the self-taught mime artiste Jogesh Dutta of India. My acquaintance with the Music College of Bangladesh and the music performances in front of great political leaders such as Bangabandhu was an initiation into the world stage for me.” Despite a hectic schedule of performing on stage or cinema, Majumder had never lost sight of his roots and visits Bangladesh as much as possible. He excitedly told us of his plans for a performance in November to commemorate Alliance Francaise's anniversary in Bangladesh. He would also take time to train the young mime artistes in the country. Majumder might live far from Bangladesh, but his heart seems to have never left his beloved country. Besides being a dedicated artiste, he is also deeply involved in the Bangladeshi community in France. His performances on stage might be an art of silence, but his message to the world could not be louder: true dedication and talent can make one stand tall as a beacon of light across the world. Not very different from the Eiffel Tower, I wondered to myself, as we drove past the brightly illuminated landmark.