Friday, August 27, 2010

Wings Presents Badal Siracr's Ant Nahin


















Badal Sircar’s Ant Nahi (1969) forces us to come face to face with those questions which we brush aside while ascending the steps to success. Sumant, who is one of us, having reached the zenith of success is battered with these subdued questions. The play teaches us how to interrogate one along these questions. Sumant meets those characters from his life who have shaped his personality as well as his creative potential. He comes face to face with his mother, lover, professor, friend, employer, and companion. He tries to negotiate with each of the accusations framed by them. The play however not only shows a man standing at the juncture of achievement and failure but also finds that his poetic endeavors are challenged and addressed by those who fight the war of survival everyday and then pass into oblivion. Thus he explores a new meaning of life with a definite purpose for his own Being. In this process, Sumant becomes simultaneously a convict, lawyer, judge and spectator unto himself. There is seemingly no end to this tussle between success and compromise.