Antyamil – A short play by Uttarpara Uttarayan

Chanchal Bhattacharya

Recently, Uttarpara Uttarayan successfully staged a short play Antyamil—written and directed by Rana Kundu—at Tapan Theatre.

As the curtain rose, the audience saw a car repair garage. The play began with various conversations between the garage owner and his employee—sometimes tinged with irritation, sometimes anger, sometimes despair, anxiety, or pain. Yet, the owner Tilak’s affection for his employee Raghu was also evident. “If the days pass like this, let them pass”—yes, day after day went on in the same way.

One day, when the garage was about to close and their light-hearted banter had ended, a driver entered the stage and informed them that their car’s tyre had been punctured. Tilak and Raghu told him that the garage had already closed and no more work would be done. The driver insisted, but failing to persuade them, left.

Then appeared renowned Rabindra Sangeet singer Abantika Sen. Through her words and songs, something began to change within Tilak and Raghu. The atmosphere gradually transformed. A strange musical resonance emerged within Tilak as well, and he began to sing. The final rhyme was complete. Tilak refused to take payment for the tyre repair. Avantika placed the flower from her hair in Tilak’s hand and left. The play came to an end.

The piece carried the essence of a short story—“The end was not quite the end.” The unspoken emotions of Antyamil seemed to find eloquence through performance. With brilliant teamwork, Uttarpara Uttarayan won the hearts of the audience.

Tilak (Pranab Bhattacharya), Raghu (Arnab Porel), and Abantika Sen (Mahuya Chatterjee) all delivered exceptional performances, captivating the audience. The driver (Kalyan Chattopadhyay) made his mark in his role.

The ambience was set by Bimal De, the neat stage décor by Jayanta Dasgupta, and lighting by Anay Mitra with make-up by Samar Ray.

We extend our gratitude to playwright-director Rana Kundu and the theatre group Uttarpara Uttarayan of Hooghly for gifting us such a flawless production.