Evam Indrajit
About
the author
Badal
Sircar (1925 to 2011) also known as Badal Sarkar was a Bengali Indian dramatist
and theatre artist he is mostly known for his novels.
He
started his own theatre company ‘Shatabdi’ as a third theatre group. During his
lifetime he had written about the 50 plays.
Sarkar mostly written in Bengali
language and made an everlasting impact on Bengali theatre. In today's time he
is considered as role model of modern playwrighting inspiring many others. Badal
Sarkar was awarded Padma shri 1972.
Notable
works
(1) Pagla Ghoda (Mad Horse)
(2) Two plays: Indian his made esay
life of Bangla
(3) Evam Indrajit
Introduction
:Evam Irajit
Evam Indrajit also pronounced as ‘’And
Indrajit’’ is a Bengali play written by Badal Sarkar, originally written in
Bengali language (1963) and performed at the theatre group Shatabdi. Later on
translated into English by Girish Karnad in 1974 and also published by Oxford
University Press.
The story of this play is about the
mediocre class man named Inrajit basically it is a conversation between the
narrator and Indrajit who is described as ‘’And Indrajit’’ because he is also
part of the society rather than having individual identity.
Evam Indrajit points towards human
existence and describes the life is a circle with no and it ends where it's
started it is an endless path.
What
is an Absurd play?
Absurdity basically means
meaninglessness or purposelessness of life, the genre Absurd play basically
came from the word Absurdity.
Albert Camus a French philosopher
and novelist who is considered as the father of Absurdity and the concept of
absurdity. Initially he used the word absurdity in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus”
as a meaninglessness. Later on also written a novel called the ‘Outsider’ which
is also based on the theme of absurdity.
Absurd play is very popular during
20 century, initially by Albert Camus and later on adopted by many authors like
Eugene Lenesco and Samuel Beckett. In India it was adopted by Bengali writer
Badal Sarkar and he has written a play called ‘Evam Indrajit’.
Absurdity tends to indicate the
meaninglessness of life that how we do many acts which have no meaning and also
life is a circle it ends where it started.
The main element of absurdity is the
uncertainty of time period which passes normally on the stage but during the
intervals it seems to passes very fast. Absurd play aims to shock audience by
showing them reality and also bring face to face has facts of human life and
the writer's perspective.
Summary
or Evaluate Evam Indrajit as an Absurd play
Evam Indrajit is a 3 act play in which
the first Act begins with a narrator is seen to be frustrated without any
content to write his story and his mother comes to ask him for dinner but he is
unable to understand.
The narrator is inspired by Mansi
and dedicated to write a story about main characters Amal, Vimal, Kamal and
Nirmal who is recognized by the narrator as Indrajit. As writer give narration
of Indrajit he tells that he is a common man like others but he is angry
towards the norms of society but his mother binds to not to go against.
The narrator asks Indrajit about his
love interest Mansi, their relation is like any other relation. They talk about
the rules stops women and give freedom to man, Indrajit got angrier towards the
rules and the narrator links it to the biblical reference to the ‘Forbidden
fruit of knowledge’ that reveals absurdity.
The next scene shows the four main
characters waiting for an interview they were asked to come at 11 but the
interviewer comes an hour later, the interview happened and that scene breaks
of as Indrajit’s mother call him to eat.
The second act of the play occurs
after 7 years of break one of the characterization of absurd play. All the three
characters Amal, Kamal and Vimal settled down to the middle class life, the regular
routine life office work they are stuck in a routine cycle which is another
characteristics of a Absurd play - the repetitiveness life but Indrajit is
searching outside of the real world and is not married yet because Mansi went
abroad so Indrajit realized his searching is in vain. He is exhausted and
decides that it is his faith and walks away from the dream again.
The last and the third act reveals
Indrajit’s vision through the letter that narrator receives. Indrajit writes
that his life goes round and round like a cycle but unable to find faith in life
when Mansi asked about the next story but there is no point to continue.
Indrajit comes to stage and tells
that he married Mansi but narrator do not believe it ,which makes Indrajit like
another characters like a common human being and finally Indrajit accept the
norms of society and name himself as a Nirmal Kumar as mentioned earlier, a man
with an ordinary ambitions and a very ordinary life.
Conclusion
At the end Indrajit and Mansi
standing under tree and Indrajit is talking about the pointlessness and meaninglessness
as the theme of Absurdity.
