Modern Mime Centre in Search of Mime Talent in Nadia District

Shankha Bhattacharyya

Since 2019, the Modern Mime Centre has been actively searching for talented mime artists in remote villages across various districts of West Bengal. This endeavour has now reached Nadia district.

Drawn by an interest in the art of mime, school students from remote villages of Nadia rushed to attend the mime workshop held at the Sukanta Cultural Eikatan stage in Gacha Bazaar, Muragacha region. Interestingly, these students had never seen mime before and had no prior knowledge of this performing art. It was solely due to the encouragement of their parents that the students came to learn about mime.

On the first day of the workshop, a seminar was held where mime artist Kamal Naskar gave an insightful introduction to the world of mime. His explanation sparked enthusiasm among the students to learn more about mime. Soon, a need-based mime workshop began.

The workshop covered the grammar of mime, character development, various expressions of the body and face, storytelling techniques, and more. In the final phase, training was given on a mime production titled “A Tree’s Autobiography”, written and directed by Kamal Naskar. Within a very short time, the students skilfully grasped the portrayal of characters like the tree, gardener, timber thief, and children.

On the evening of the past Sunday, young performers Adrika Maulik, Sneha Dutta, Tanvi Biswas, Soumik Mondal, Kaustav Biswas, Soumyajit Guha, Bikram Mondal, Sayantika Saha, Sumitra Sarkar, Sreeja Roy, Bidipta Sarkar, Anushka Pal, Shrabonti Sarkar, and Arshi Pal received immense appreciation from the audience for their performances.

To further educate the participants, mime artist Kamal Naskar performed two solo mime acts, mesmerising everyone present.

With the support of the Paschimbanga Natya Academy, these budding mime artists from Nadia will get the opportunity to perform at the upcoming Mime Festival ’25.

The entire workshop was organised by the cultural organisation Katha Shilpa, under the guidance of its director Pritam Bhattacharya.

The program concluded with Dilip Pal honouring Kamal Naskar for his contribution.