Born in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, Debesh has been working in the field of theatre for the last thirty three years. He is the founder and director of “Sansriti”. He has directed over 40 plays in Bengali. “Winkle Twinkle”, “Devi Sarpomasta”, “Phataru”, “Saudagorer Nouka” are milestone productions on the Bengali Stage directed by Debesh.
Not only proscenium, but he has also directed plays for intimate and site-specific theatre. He is a well acclaimed theatre academic and expert, and has completed a senior fellowship on “Cognitive Neuroscience and Theatre”. He has written several books on theatre. “The Week” magazine felicitated him as one of the ‘Fifty emerging stars of India’ in 2003. Debesh has been honoured by Paschimbanga Natya Academy (Govt. of W.B.) as “Best Director” twice. Recipient of many awards Debesh directed his first feature film “Natoker Moto: like a play” in 2015. It was included in International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa in the Indian Panorama and, International Competition Section. Film Critic Circle of India (FCCI) honoured him as best debut director of 2015 for the film. Currently he is working on “Natyashastra”. Highest state award in theatre (Girish Ghosh Samman) was given to Debesh by Govt. of W.B. (I&CA) in 2019.
Read More...FYATARU :
The story was mainly adapted from Nabarun Bhattacharya’s ‘Fyatarur Bombachak’ though some incidents also crossed the Bhattacharya’s next book ‘Kangal Malsat’ to get mixed here. Along with that a bomb shell has come out a Bhattacharya’s pen in the form of a poem, composed solely for the play, which adds fire in the auditorium at the end of the play, as a thunder spark. A deconstructed script by director Debesh Chattopadhyay-thereafter the play gets life.
That tales of ‘Fyataru’s was a shocking explosion is the history of Bengali literature. Its language, its subject, its ground-work and most importantly its almost irrecognizable but valuable inner political messages are unique and incompetitive is contemporary time. So this fairytale seems to be really hard, almost impossible to be moulded as a play. From this angle of view, the effort by Sansriti is exceptional and surprising. A bloody, nasty, destructive blow of fantacy-cum-reality should chase us from one corner to the other of the auditorium. We should also feel to be amidst the attack. Some of the people in audience may come without any hint in their minds about these characters-rather eighty percent of them will be gathered by the pull of a play-so there increases the responsibility of the director.
It is unnecassary to discuss about the extent of the success of the young director Debesh Chattopadhyay in this production. Debesh and his ‘Fyataru’s adopted the magic of flying spelling - ‘Fyat Fyat Sai Sai’. Let us try to send the news from one end to other - Madan, DS, Purandar are on stasge. Surely, that step will be foundation of conspiracy for another sabotage, too. Waon, waon!!
CREDITS :
Story : Nabarun Bhattacharya
Dramatisation : Rajarshi Dey
Music : Chandrabindu
Puppet : Sudip Gupta
Light : Sudip Sanyal
Dress : Koushiki Biswas
Music Operation : Anindya Nandi
Dramaturgy, Set Design & Direction : Debesh Chattopadhyay