'Taramandal: An interesting adaptation of Ray's story

Exploring the heartbreaking reality of show business and the hopes that people carry despite everything, 'Taramandal' brings to the stage Satyajit Ray’s short story ‘Patol Babu, Film Star’.

The award-winning screenplay written by Neel Chaudhuri uses a unique storytelling method. It expands on the established story by Satyajit Ray and adds details to Patol Babu’s story to make it more fleshed-out. He also includes vignettes that tell stories of people from different places and backgrounds who are connected through their shared experience of broken dreams. The play 'Taramandal', staged recently at the Bangalore International Center in Domlur, goes one step further by exploring the theme through various artistic lenses. An amalgamation of music, dance, art and especially the beautiful craft of theater, the play, directed Tahera, proves to be an interesting watch.

The actors connect to the audience individually throughout the two hours with their raw performances. Most of them are first time actors but the emotions they portray are convincing. The humorous characters help alleviate the weighty note of the play takes and extract bitter-sweet laughter from the audience.

Taramandal, meaning star constellations, is a reference to how we revere the idea of stardom and set it up on a pedestal that we all aspire to reach. The stories beautifully depict how people from all ages and backgrounds want to showcase themselves to the world and how this can be a tough ride if society is not accepting of them and their dreams.

The stories of the characters vary in their details but the emotions behind them: the dreams, the vulnerability, and the crushed sense of identity are all shared amongst them. They are also in boundless pursuit of their passion.

The play is multilingual, weaving its story in English, Hindi, Bangla and Kannada, and proves the similarity of all people who dream despite their cultural differences. The play could have been more organised as the scene changes weren't as crisp as we expect them to be. An interesting scene was when the actors, aided by the lights, created an imitation of a red carpet pointed towards the audience as if they were the stars.

Another notable aspect was the use of the single expression ‘oh!’ throughout the play, used for different ways of expression. This was the crux of the short story by Ray and it was a satisfying adaptation. The play ended in an ensemble scene that didn't need words to convey its message of hope and perseverance. 'Taramandal' will be staged again in Bengaluru in September.