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SO NEAR, YET SO FAR: BADAL SIRCAR'S THIRD THEATRE. By Manujendra Kundu. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016. 895 rupee/$50.00
Each of the seven chapters in So Near, Yet So Far meticulously examines postcolonial Bengali playwright and director Badal Sircar's work and his concept of Third Theatre through a critical lens. Chapter 1, "Bengali Theatre: An Edifice for the Bhadraloks," documents the history of Bengali theatre. By investigating the emergence of the proscenium stage, the author introduces the readers to the power of colonial imperialism, and its persistent impact on Bengali culture. He contrasts the traditional folk theatre jatra, with elitist entertainment in colonial Bengal. By detailing the social cynicism of upper class regarding jatra performance, Kundu, addresses the emerging progressive cultural activities in the period. With the emergence of Indian Peoples' Theatre Association (IPTA) in the 1940s, an alternative artistic-political-cultural perception surfaced.
The second chapter, "Politics to Performance: Sprouting Sircari Theatre," focuses on Badal Sircar's personal life and a disjuncture between his own political ideologies and his party politics, collecting information from Sircar's autobiography and personal interviews, Kundu writes that engineer and an aspiring town planner Sircar, once an active member of CPI (Communist Party of India), soon became disenchanted with communist ideologies. Sircar explored...