Assam's mobile theatres get ready for Hijack and Gaisal

Assam's mobile theatres get ready for Hijack and Gaisal
SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP

Remember how the mobile theatre industry of Assam had hit the headlines by staging incidents such as Lady Diana's tragic death and the watery grave that the Titanic met with. Well, gearing up for the new season, the flavours this year are plays depicting the head-on collision of two passenger trains at Gaisal and last year's hijack of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814.

With a finger on the pulse of those who seek live excitement, at least one theatre company in the state has chosen the Gaisal tragedy as a subject. Saraighat Theatre, a mobile theatre company formed two years ago, has decided to make this the centrepiece of its repertoire. It has already got Deepak Tamuly, a young playwright to script Abhishapta Gaisal and rehearsals have already begun at the theatre's base in Nagaon. Last year, Tamuly had written a play called Kargil for Indrani Theatre, which was an instant hit.

According to Saraighat Theatre's chief producer Krishnananda Tamuly, Abhishapta Gaisal is going to be yet another feather in the cap for the technical directors of the mobile theatre industry of Assam.

Another leading company, Bhagyadevi Theatre, has decided to enact the Indian Airlines hijack. Simply titled as Hijack, the play has been written by well-known Assamese film and stage personality Taufique Rahman.

The hijack has also caught the fancy of the Indrani Theatre Company, for which Manoj Kashyap has written a play called -- what else -- Abhishapta Viman.

``The common people want wholesome entertainment, and with the absence of cinema halls in the rural areas, the masses flock to mobile theatres which come to their doorstep,'' says Bhabendra Nath Saikia, an internationally-acclaimed film-maker and writer, who is also closely associated with the mobile theatre movement.

This is probably the reason why Awahan Theatre -- for which Saikia writes one play every year -- is staging Lady Diana for the second year running. The play had even caught the attention of the international media last year.

And while the race for staging dangerous and tragic plays continues among the mobile theatre companies of Assam, Hengool Theatre, another popular group, has picked up an adaptation of H.G. Wells' science fiction novel The Invisible Man for the current season. Is this is the shape of things to come?