He ignited fire in me

(In the memory of Prasanna Mohanty)

Satyabrata Rout

It was the year 1975 when I joined as a under graduate student at Ravenshaw College, the most prestigious academic institutions of the then Orissa, now a University. I had to come to Cuttack to stay in the college hostel from my ancestral village. The college had opened many other avenues for its students. The college cultural society was very popular at that time. There were so many activities going on parallel to study. Literature club, sports club, gym, dance n’ music club and dramatic society were established to express and ignite the young minds. But unfortunately these organizations were dominated by the arts and commerce students. The science students’ seldom joined in these clubs. Being a science student I got strict instructions from my teachers and parent not to take active participation in those cultural activities as it may disturb my study. But I had a different mind. I had a keen interest in literature and art. So I joined the dramatic society without the knowledge of my guardians. Every evening some of the likeminded students gathered together and use to discuss about Oriya theatre, cinema and other cultural activities that were going on around the city. In this way I got involved with cultural activities and came to know about contemporary Oriya theatre. That year our senior students presented Arthur Millar’s “All my Sons”. I did not do any role but they gave me the job of a prompter. Slowly I was exposed to a wider world of Theatre. I came to know about the playwrights and plays. I learnt the production process. I interacted with spot lights, wings, flats and I was thrilled. The play was directed by one of the leading Oriya theatre and cinema actor Hemanta Das (He expired in April this year). A memorable Oriya film “Sesa Shrabana” (The last monsoon) was released by then and got popularity among the Oriya people. Prasant Nanda and Maheswata Ray became a house hold name because of this film. Hemant Das was doing a major role in that film and got lot of appreciations. So working with a man of that stature was an opportunity for me. Hemanta babu got impressed with my work and I came close to him. One day he brought me a proposal to attend a theatre workshop organized by Bharatiya Natya Sangha at Kalasri Theatre auditorium. He insisted on theatre training to become a good actor and for that the workshop is essential. I also did not want to miss the opportunity. I have already made up my mind to become an actor by then.

I collected the address and reached Kalasri Theatre. It was late afternoon. There were few young people gathered around. I did not know any one of them so I sat quietly inside the hall. That was the first day of the workshop. I heard from someone talking about acting and performances. They were discussing about the play they saw last evening. They were talking about the director of the workshop who has come from Delhi. He will select actors for his theatre group which he has established recently at Tulsi Pur, a kaswa in Cuttack. I have no idea about any theatre groups till then. Though I had the experience of doing drama in my village club during the summer vacations where I used to gather my village friends and directed a couple of plays, I had no experiences of modern and contemporary theatre and the groups. So I got exited to become a member of a theatre group. At 7.30 pm dot in time, a dark complexioned man entered into the hall. He was short height but looked very smart with a red tie hanging from the neck. He was well dressed up. At the very entrance he passed an impression of slenderness and dominance. Everybody stood up from their place and all the gossips stopped. I couldn’t stop my curiosity and whispered in some body’s ear to know about him. A young man stood nearby me spoke in a low voice, “He is Prasanna Mohanty; the director”. After brief introduction he did some theatre games with us. I liked the way he made us relaxed. He worked with us for 7 days. Every evening he started the workshop rights at 7.30 not even a minute late. In the beginning there were 15 students but after 2-3 days the number was reduced to 6, perhaps because of the strong discipline and hard work he incorporated. Prasanna bhai taught us the importance of time in theatre and in life as well. “The time that passed will never return. If you come late you will loose. More over Theatre is a group activity. Everybody has to depend on each other as one can’t do drama alone. If one person does not come in time rest of the team suffers.”

Time passed by. Every day I was waiting eagerly for the evening to come. This was my first exposure to contemporary world of theatre. I learnt many creative games, exercises and improvisations during those days. I also made many friends. To our utter disappointment the workshop was culminated after seven days. As we all finished the class, Prasanna Bhai called and told me to come to his residence at Tulsi pur. I was waiting for that. The next evening I reached his residence in the stipulated time. I found many young new faces gathered along with some workshop students and Prasanna bhai was addressing about his new theatre group, “The Theatre Movement”. He introduced me to others. There I found one young man little elder than me with whom I made friendship. He was Hara Pattanaik, who adapted to Oriya cinema in later years and became a house hold name. We all became the members of the group and marched forward for a committed theatre movement. Our first venture was “Jwala”, an Oriya play written by Dr. Basant Das. Hara Pattanayak did the lead role. I just played a minor character in that play. I had a liking towards the offstage activities so I involved myself in lighting and stage design under the guidance of Prasanna Bhai. By observing my keen interest in theatre he advised me to join National School of Drama, New Delhi from where he had already studied theatre. I came to know about this famous Institution from him only. He told us many stories about Ibrahim Alkazi and his dictatorship in theatre. I learnt about the legendary productions of Andhayug and Tughlaq at Purana Qila and Firoz Saha Khotla in Delhi. They were like fairy tells to me. In my imagination I started mapping a new horizon of theatre completely different from my village drama. It was a myth to me during those days.

Slowly I was exposed to many qualities of Prasanna Mohanty. He was a painter and a trained scenic designer. He joined Oriya Doordarsan and posted at Tulsi Pur very recently. I saw many of his design works and sketches of productions during his NSD time which inspires me to adapt design as a career. I learnt sketching from him. He was a big brother to me during that phase of time. We did number of plays during that period in our Theatre Movement group. While involved with Prasanna Bhai and his theatre group I could not give much time to my study. My father’s dream to make me a doctor was shattering. I could not do well in the final year examination. Fortunately my honours was retained and I got a seat in a medical institution at Bhubaneswar. I had to leave Cuttack but I couldn’t cut off myself from Prasanna Mohanty. We met each other occasionally till I joined NSD in 1980.

He was my inspiration. He ignited the fire in me to adapt a wider world of theatre. He is no more with us now. He left for the heavenly abode on 12^th September, 2010. I did not know about his death until I got a phone call from Surya Mohanty from Bhubaneswar. I couldn’t believe it at that moment. I couldn’t even accept his death. But it is true. His health was reducing like anything during the recent years because of his drinking habit.

……………….May his soul rest in peace.

__________________________________________________________________ Dr.Satyabrata Rout/Associate Professor, Dept. of Theatre Arts, University of Hyderabad