28th January, Kolkata: Art and culture are a vital part of our living and that very core has different shades, of which monologues give one the opportunity to discover oneself. The city of joy, of course, has this opportunity to encourage art forms and live through it for the past 6 years. This was the time again for the ‘Phreedom4ever Monologues’, a solo art festival curated by Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee, an elocutionist and actor, and Chaity Ghosh, the founder of Phreedom4ever conducted at ICCR on Saturday evening. Special Guests like Sohag Sen, Mahesh Elkunchwar, Usha Ganguli, Chaitali Dasgupta, Chaity Ghoshal, Sudeshna Basu, Dolly Basu and more among the eminent theatre personalities. Meeyrung Hall, the wife of the US Consulate General in Kolkata, Suvaprashanna, the renowned painter, Sudarshan Chakravorty, a renowned dance artist and Debashish Kumar, the MMIC of Kolkata were also present at the event.
There was a special session of the Sathitya Akademy winning playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar, renowned thespian Sohag Sen and internationally acclaimed Chandan Roy Sanyal.
The owner of Phreedom4ever, Chaity Ghosh says, “We did not start with any purpose as such. The entire ideation is Sujoy’s and the first year when he decided to start off the event he had no money. He borrowed money from his friends to do it. He came to me and simply asked if we can collaboratively do it. My company was also quite new that time and I had full confidence in Sujoy’s concept. It all began that way.”
“I am quite fascinated by the solo art form and I have been watching a lot of it across the globe. When you are alone on the stage and seeking different avenues or expressions of characters becomes interesting and this was an interesting platform to showcase this art form. Mahesh Elkunchwar, one of the most reputed theatre personalities in India introduced by Sohag Sen and Usha Ganguli, will be a part of this and we will be together now.” says Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee to Woman Times.
The commercial aspect of the event matters a lot and when the same is asked to Chaity Ghosh, she replies,
“This is a small way we thought of contributing towards the city’s art and culture which also brings a sense of satisfaction to our team. We plan to take this to other cities which was hit by the last year’s demonetisation else we could have done a similar program at Bengaluru this year. But we are happy to make ‘Monologues’ our brand property.”
While speaking to the audience, the famous painter Shuvaprashanna says, “Once a journalist told me that Satyajit Ray alone could have done nothing. It was the other people who assisted him that made him a director. It is the solo performers who can do it all by themselves.” With this, he also adds, “It was his perception of looking at things but whatever I do is my monologue.”
Sudeshna Basu, a theatre actor says, “Monologues is a brainchild of Sujoy and this is the 6th year that this initiative to highlight the people who hide in the crowd is been taken up so beautifully. I wish them all success.” The MMIC of Kolkata Corporation, Debashish Kumar says, “I am happy to see that a ‘corporate’ is doing such event which indicates that ‘corporates’ are not the enemies of creations. This is a different kind of art. This kind of experiment is very necessary to enhance the cultural aspect.”
Asking about the possibilities of punching any other form of art to this event in future Mr Chatterjee says,
“I am the artistic director of the festival and this is my brainchild. I have written a solo play ‘Happy birthday’ which will e staged in the city on 9th February at the Tollygunj club. I believe that solos are very interesting as an art form and it is kind of soul-searching. Keeping them separate extracts the real essence.”
