Condemned Cell
Director's Note
Condemned Cell is an endeavor based on a love story. Twin souls, Ishrat and Mousa were found guilty by the Government and eventually imprisoned. They were confined in two neighbouring cells. While they couldn’t see each other in the hushed stillness of their solitary prison cells, they could feel each other through sounds. These reverberations resonated as elusive, unrequited love in their bodies and minds.
This tale could easily be told through a play full of dialogues, however, if it is silent – mimetic – and the body becomes effusive? Thus, as a director, I have attempted to explore my actors through a workshop, wherein I have tried to provoke their mental and physical creativity. A tale was in search of an expression. Eventually, the process itself has emerged as the language of performance. Expressions, music and the rasa of the story creates the moments. While the artists collectively created the moments, I just weaved the garland of this elusive love-lore…
Synopsis
Ishrat and Mausa are two prisnors, locked in the same jail. Ishrat is a married, muslim lady and is a passionate dancer. Her husband is not appreciative of her dance, so her aesthetic sensibilities were hurt. She took a divorce. Her husband was angry, and to avenge his humiliation he tried to rape her. She faught fiercely and killed her husband with her hijaab around his neck.
Mausa is a painter, he was arrested for a painting that presumably had anti-state resonances; a dissension.
Coincidentally, both of them were put in cells alongside the other. They never met or saw each other, but could feel the presence and eventually, fell in love. Oneday, Ishrat was removed from her cell by the gaurds. Mausa terribly felt her absence and desperately wanted to be with her, thus, he fled from the prison and was chased by the police. Finally, he was shot dead like the proverbial ‘highwayman’ – a dead dog on the street.
Premiered On: 19th Aug 2019
Cast
- Anindita Das
- Ankita Banik
- Jhumur Saha
- Sutapa Kundu
- Karna Chakraborty
- Shatadal Chakraborty
- Rishikalpo Banerjee
- Ankur Roy
Credits
- Light Design – Sandip Bhattacharya
- Costume – Madhumita Dham
- Make-Up – Sk. Israfil
- Props – Dulal Chandra Majumder
- Digital Painting – Kamil Das
- Poetry – Shatadal Chakraborty
- Voice – Anindita Das & Shatadal Chakraborty
- Voice Recording – Anindya Nandy
- Light Execution – Soumen Chakraborty
- Music Execution – Gourab Bhatta
- Set – Ranjit Deb
- Still Photography – Joydeep Choudhary
Production Co-ordinators
- Production In-charge – Pritam Bhattacharya
- Production Controller – Kaushik Ghosh
- Source: Vaikom Muhammad Basheer
- Design and Direction: Deb Kumar Pal
- Acknowledgment: Biplab Bandyopadhyay