BADAL SIRCAR (1925) (OFFICIAL NAME--

SUDHINDRA SIRCAR)

Badal Sircar is one of the living legends from the world of

performing arts.
Through the seventies along with Girish Karnad (Kanada)
Vijay Tendulkar (Marathi) Mohan Rakesh, Dharamveer Bharti
(Hindi),Sircar spearheaded the Indian play righting movement
in the post-independent era. By profession a town planner
(trained in London) Sircar created a tumult in the theatre
circle in the sixties as an Avant-garde playwright of
international stature.
His major plays and adaptations include EBONG INDRAJIT (And Indrajit, 1963),
SARA RATTIR (The Whole Night, 1963), BALLAV PURER ROOPKATHA (The
Fairytales of Ballav Pur, 1963), PAGLA GHODA (The Mad Horse, 1967), BAKI
ITIHAAS (The remaining part of the history, 1965), those are now considered
as some master pieces of Indian literature.

From the early seventies Sircar took an enormous initiative that can be said
as a paradigm shift in Indian theatre. He vigorously persuaded a mass reach
out program on the basis of three major principles 1) Flexibility 2) Portability
3) Inexpensive; he changed the concept of standardized practice of theatre.
Now instead of people coming to watch a play at an auditorium the entire
production team reaches the different lanes, by lanes, alleys or open ground
or even an interior village path. This created a startling effect on the art
lovers and influenced a large number of the theatre groups of this sub
continent and abroad as well. In this phase Sircar produced some of the
legends of Indian theatre like SPARTACUS (1972) (Based on Howard Fast’s
Novel), MICHHIL (Procession, 1974), BHOMA (1974), BHANUMATI KA KHEL
(Black Magic, 1974), SUKHA PATHYA BHARATER ITIHAAS (The Essay Reading
of Indian History, 1976) Dwairath (Memorandum, 1979) etc.

Recipient of several prestigious awards and honors like Sangeet Natak

Academy award (1967), ‘Padmashree’ (1972), ‘Padma Bhushan’ (1974),
‘Nehru Fellowship’ (1971-73), ‘Kalidas Samman’ (1978), and many such,
Sircar is still active with his rapidly deteriorating health.
The city Calcutta first time tries to salute this maestro in an
official ceremonial manner. But what can be so official of a
ceremony that wants to convey its heartiest offering to a
person who all along remained an unofficial, nonparty—
political dissenter and interventionist who remained
committed to his people and his own aesthetics.