KKNS - Khelte Khelte Natak Sikhi

About KKNS

While performing at various venues in the districts of West Bengal, we ‘Prachyo’ realized that there is a tremendous appreciations and enthusiasm for theatre, especially among the youth. So to give shape to these youthful aspirations and involved them in a constructive and creative way. ‘Prachyo’ took decision to open a children / youth wing in their theatrical endeavour at Belgharia.

Most Bengali theatre groups have a children wing where children are groomed from an early age in all facts to become a complete theatre worker. ‘Prachyo’ too has made the effort to channelize the energy and spirit of today’s youth and train them in various aspects of theatre to make them absolutely prepared and worthy of being theatre artists.

On the 1st of May 2013, ‘Khelte Khelte Natak Shikhi’ was inaugurated at the ‘Pyarimohan Library’ in Belgharia by a pannel of eminent theatre personalities like Gautam Halder, Biswajit Chakraborty, Bimal Chakraborty. Supriyo Dutta and others. An audiovisual collage of songs and poems based on the history of Bengali theatre was also performed by the members of ‘Prachyo’.

KKNS (Khelte Khelte Natak Shikhi) in these few months have grown from strength to strength and has more than 30 students on its rolls. Regular classes are held by the above mentioned a theatre personalities and a theatre production involving all the students very shortly. KKNS also involves the younger members of ‘Prachyo’ in implementing workshops and taking classes

Alor Chamok

Directed by Santanu Chattopadhyay

Synopsis

“Sultan jodi churikorte paren amrao pari”- A dialogue of this play explains everything. If the Sultan can steal, so can we, this habit of stealing has become a very common expression now-a-day, and has become part of our society. It’s very important to give good values to our children for their better future, we see in this play, a young boy buys some presents for his mother and younger brother form a Mela, but mistakenly is accused of stealing it, after a lot’s of accusation and counter accusation, righteousness wins and Sultan gives a honest verdict, and the truth and honesty of the young boy wins, small dreams and high ambitions are part and parcel of our life, but among all these we need to remember this eternal truth, nothing is constant in this world, so instead of running behind materialistic life, lets live a life full of honesty, peace and happiness and lets spread it to others too.

Director's note

It has been a very long and learning Journey with PRACHYO Theatre Group, my association with PRACHYO started in the year 2010, with the theatre production – “ Supari Killer”, I have learnt a lot, and am still learning, and with time , PRACHYO had developed a Children’s theatre group, many young children with their limitless imagination, were very excited to do theatre, meanwhile, I got the responsibility to take care their practice sessions, “Alor chomok” , written by Sailen Ghosh , Children’s novelist, was decided to be our first production. In these changing times of Globalization, and a fast-paced lifestyle, I felt the need to explore the honesty, innocence of young children, as with time they tend to lose it, adapting to the need of society, Truth, righteousness and honesty, is suffering to survive, but young brains in their developing stage, need these inputs, for their growth in the proper way. “Truth Prevails – Satyamewa Jayate”.

Cast

Sultan – Arkojoy Bhattacharya
Cheleti – Srijita Dutta
Aalo – Swasthik Ganguly
Jomadar – Sweta Hazra
Saudagar – Bipro Mitra
Austagar & Old Man – Saswata Sarkar
Sabha-Parishad – Swastik Ganguly, Samya Saha, Arunanshu Ray, Arani Sah
Eyasin – Soumyo Mukherjee
Sorabh – Kaushik Ghosh

Creative Coordinators

Technical Co-operations

Ashok PainDipankar
Ghosal (Palash)
Zakir Hussain Mallick
Anindya Samajdar
Nilkanta Das

Productions Coordinators

Debotar Grash

Directed by Santanu Chattopadhyay

Synopsis

“Greed is a sin, Sin is Death”

—But, when greediness, and the desire of attaining religious good deeds, spread to the extent, where they have to face death, face to face, ‘then’, a shocking truth or boundary is crossed unknowingly in our heart. Darkness surrounds us. When Greedy ‘Mokkhoda’, in the greed of attaining good deeds, sacrifices her one and only child, for the sake of religious rigidity, then, the magical liberation of god, turns out to be a joke.

“Chol torey diye asi, Sagorer torey” — “Come, let me leave you, to the ocean”—- mistakenly utterance of few words, turned out to be a fatal truth, where a mother had to lose her son, and the child was floated away, into the huge unforgiving ocean. Just for the sake of acquiring good deeds, while returning back from the journey, this heinous, disastrous, wild incident occurred.

Tolerance, Humanity bled to death, in our bare hands, in the hands of Human. More than 100 years ago, the truth that Sri Rabindranath Tagore, had illustrated in his poetry, finds relevance even today, and is proved by the incidents that are occurring in and around us.

And keeping this relevance in our mind, we decided to represent, on stage, a theatre production based on —Sri Rabindranath Thakur’s poem –“DEVOTAR GRASH”.

Director's note

Second Production of “khelte khelte Natok sikhi” (Learn Theatre while you play). Children and youth, have done a commendable job here, they have tried to give their best, and having said that, I also realized the subject was a bit tough for them. But after a hard work of 5 months, and with the journey, which included, making them understand the meaning of each and every word, the enactment shaped up, to be a performance, ‘Debotar Grash’.

They have also tried to overcome the barriers that their age and feelings bring, and have excelled in every aspect. The respected theatre activists, under the guidance of whom, I learn and practice theatre, have given me a lot of realizations to share, I would like to pass the same realization of theatre, to my KKNS children and friends, spread the magic of theatre, among them, and if they turn out to be good human being, society will progress, is what I believe in.

Cast

Creative Coordinators

Technical Co-operations

Ashok PainDipankar
Ghosal (Palash)
Zakir Hussain Mallick
Anindya Samajdar
Nilkanta Das

Productions Coordinators

Putuler Deshe - In the Land of Puppets

Directed by Santanu Chattopadhyay

Synopsis

It is the land of magic. Here human beings are mere puppets. An unseen Magician is the ruler of their destiny. People behave according to the wish of the Magician. He is unseen, so he is feared most.

Here in this land once arrives Laal and Neel in their dreams. And as they tug the illusory wheel of the Magician, the Puppet-people wake-up. But they are panic stricken as they fear that the Magician will now come out with his fearful appearance to vanquish them.

Director's note

Where is the childhood or adolescence that will talk like that now !!! In my childhood, adolescence or early youth, I did not dare to speak like that, the funny thing is that the elders of the house used to teach me to recite various poems according to the rules in my childhood.
But they used to live in the steep hills, thinking that they were saying poetry but they were foolish.The word ‘perseverance’ was confused with reading like a bird, but in our childhood, there was some time to spend in the fields, in the canals.

When I was given the responsibility of the children’s and adolescent department from the team, it was started from afar. On May 1, 2013, the practice of drama under the title ‘Khelte Khelte Natok Shikhi’ was a feeling of indescribable joy. It was a lot of fun to combine the sleepy eyes of a few children and the tendency of parents to drag their children from every Sunday morning onwards. Our aim was to bring ourselves out of teaching and learning, who are the souls like those young leaves and of course the guardians as well. In 2016, my master, the revered Ratan Kumar Das, gave me the children’s play ‘Putuler Deshe’ written by him.

I really enjoyed reading the play that ignited the myth. Here’s the story – Some dolls trapped in a magician’s magic. Those driven by the hypnotic power of the magician. Those who are under controlled magic from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep. That’s where ‘Thakumar Jhuli’ came from.
The red lotus, the blue lotus, the comfort stick, the hadith of Jiram Kathi, the story of Sita captive in the Panchabati forest where the hero Hanuman comes with the news of Sita’s mother’s release.

The dolls are freed from the magic of the magician by the courage of the blue lotus. The story of the story seen with the naked eye, the essence of the story is reminiscent of the parrot bird of the parrot story … In fact, it is an attempt to show with a finger in the eye how the childhood adolescents are trapped in a magical way out of the period of blindness. We have tried to turn that attempt into a drama. That’s how a children’s play “Putuler Deshe” was created.

Cast

Creative Coordinators

Lakkhaner Shaktishel

Directed by Santanu Chattopadhyay

Synopsis

Lakshman’s Shaktisheel is Sukumar Roy has composed a special rendition of Ramayana’s’ Lanka Kanda’. This short drama of Kazitin scene is quite enjoyable. This drama revolves around the battle of Rama and Ravana. In this allegorical play, the playwright has narrated the heroic story of the so-called hero Nayak Ram in a very sarcastic manner. In our subcontinent, ‘Ram’ is not only the character of the great scriptures but also the deity, the good ruler and king of the people. Strange tactical writing is really useful to point out the imperialist aggression and administrative inefficiency of such a deity. There is also a lot of variety in the language. The play, written by Sukumar Roy, is a powerful shell to ridicule state duplicity through satire.

Director's note

Between Kazi Nazrul Islam and the poet Satyendra Nath Dutt, Sukumar Roy spread his creations in various fields of Bengali literature. In writing. Similarly, in the play ‘Lakshmaner Shaktishel’, the so-called myth, the playwright has made ‘Ramcharit’ a character in his play in a very sarcastic way.
The enchanting account of Ramchandra’s imperialist aggression and incompetence and Ravana’s heroic bragging in the Indian subcontinent has come to life in this play. I have read the play several times. The insanity of false patriotism and blindness of devotion to Ram has become a contagious bamboo in our country for many years. What a strange way this drama written by Sukumar Roy is still relevant today. This play was made with the urge to present that relevance to the adults through the mouths of children and teenagers and their performances. Unfortunately, the play was not staged for only two performances and for various reasons.

Cast

Credits

Playwright – Sukumar Ray
Chief Advisor – Biplab Bandyopadhyay

Sujan Harbola

Directed by Santanu Chattopadhyay

Synopsis

The name was given by Rabindranath – Harbola i.e. a foley artist. People were involved in this practice from the earliest of times. The exchange of thoughts used to occur through certain words. These words gradually took the form a ‘language’. This story is from a long time ago. In the rich history of our vernacular literature, such examples of foley artists seem rare. In one of his innumerable short stories written for children, Satyajit Ray gave us a picture of such an artist with the help of his effortless prose. A child who wants to break free from the barriers of his classroom and venture out in the world to try and communicate with different animals and birds. Those living creatures, which are classified as non-human also try and communicate with this person using their own ‘language’. The writer named this boy, Sujan. The name of the story, Sujan Harbola.

Sujan grows up with time, becomes a young man. As the financial situation of his family was not suitable to lead a comfortable life, his father, Dibakar suggested him to venture out and look for vocations which will help him to survive in this world. Out of his endearment, he also suggests the name of Kartik Harbola to his son. In his search for this lost art, Sujan becomes a professional foley artist. He reaches Charali forest. There he meets the king of Ajab Nagar who was out in the wild to hunt for wild animals. Impressed by this rare talent displayed by this young boy, the king takes Sujan to his kingdom. The king’s daughter, Srimati also gets enthralled upon seeing Sujan communicating with birds. Also, far from the city of Ajab Nagar, on top of a huge mountain, there was a monster who ate birds. His diet only consisted of birds. The kingdom had everything, except a revolution. The princess took an oath. Whoever could kill this ‘Bihangobhuk’ monster, she would marry him. Sujan took a weapon from the king and seeking his blessings, ventured into the dark cave inside the mountain to kill this monster. Ajab Nagar celebrated like never before. The sound of the shehnai roamed through the air. The princess married Sujan. This story which was filled with fairytale elements took the shape of a play, with the pen of Biplab Bandyopadhyay. Prachyo’s children’s wing, KKNS was elated to perform this play.

Director's note

I first read the story of Sujan Harbola when I was a child. That story itself took the shape of a play with the help of my mentor, Biplab Bandyopadhyay. When I received the script from him and started working with it with KKNS, I also immersed myself in this craft along with the children. Foley artists which we saw in our childhood, puppetry, street drama, jatra, Pala music, Chau dance etc different kinds of artistry which used to occur in semi-urban cities regularly came in my imagination as avenues to explore with my team. These performances helped people to connect with ancient art forms which were not mainstream. With it, the people who resided in these neighbourhoods also developed a sense of comradeship. In the vicinity one could see a Sheikh Rahim sing Pot’er music while Gopal played the Nal and Khol, this was the routine. With time, the character of these semi-urban cities began to change. The routine and daily life of the people who resided there changed too. People’s art which wad developed through years of interaction with the society around us gradually lost their relevance and this glamorous world of entertainment took its place. The sight of a simple flute player crrating tunes which are soothing to hear became rare. Anyways, under the stewardship of Achin Goswami, the practice of this art gradually began with our team. Suddenly this idea of involving puppet theatre along with this play came to my mind. This synthesis gradually took shape, ” Rong Beron er Puppet Theatre ” under the leadership of Atish helped us. The music was created by the respected Kankan Bhattacharya. Light design was carried out by Debasish Chakraborty. This is how we created a children’s play – Sujan Harbola.

Cast