Dialogues sans words

A sequence from the mimodrama Nightmare

Born in 1954, Partha was drawn to mime by his childhood affinity for the traditional lathikhela. "I can recall watching young men performing lathikhela at Muharram celebrations. What amused me is that the performance involved more body-movements than lathikhela itself!" Attracted by this feature of speaking out through body language and gestures, Partha soon went to Jogesh Dutta's mime academy in Kolkata. There he trained in mime from 1966 to 1972.

On his return to Bangladesh, Partha used to practise mime all by himself since there was no such institute or group of pantomime in the country at that time. At the same time, he organised some performances of pantomime during 1975-1981. His early shows used to be in the form of five or six short sketches. The costume was usually black tights and the face was painted white.

Partha's subjects were mainly entertaining in nature. Some of his famous mime pieces were Janma Thekey Mrityu (From Birth to Death), Balok O Pakhi (The Boy and the Bird), Projapoti (Butterfly), Photographer, Oushodh Bikreta (The Medicine Seller), Bokhatey Chheler Parinoti (The End of a Young Scoundrel), Rickshawala (The Rickshaw Puller) and Machh Dhora (Fishing). Though generally entertaining, some of these pantomimes touched upon serious subjects.

In Paris, Partha attended the school of Etienne Decroux, the founder of corporal mime and later he worked with world's greatest mime Marcel Marceau.

Partha has written and choreographed a mimodrama named Nightmare, which was staged in Bangladesh in 1994. The performance was achieved with the collaboration of different group theatres and professional dancers of Dhaka. The mimodrama, concerning child abuse, was the first of its kind to be shown on South East Asian stages.

"I have incorporated expressions and gestures from the traditional art forms of Bangladesh just as Marceau has incorporated mudras from Indian Bharat Natyam and Japanese musical theatre genre known as Noh and Kabuki," says Partha about his deeply rooted interest in the country's traditional cultural activities.

Besides giving lectures and lessons at several European and American universities and institutions, Partha has worked in films and plays produced in Paris. Recently he has been featured on ads of four IBM products.

Regarding the present cultural activities Partha is a little frustrated. "In our youth we used to learn and perform in one medium with full devotion. However, I now notice the young generation, in particular, getting involved with several mediums without much commitment to them. This is very painful to me. This way we cannot develop our culture and make it known at the international level."

The practice of mime in the country is also negligible, according to Partha. "There is no institution where mime can be practised throughout the year. When I come to Bangladesh, a lot of children and young boys and girls come to me to learn some mime. But unfortunately, after I leave the practice does not continue anymore--their interest in mime withers completely," he says.