Calcutta’s 100th drama

It may look like an unusual milestone in the history of Indian theater but the Cal-cutta Parsi Amateur Dramatic Club completed its centenary this year on the festival days of Pateti and Navroz and tried putting up a grand finale of the 100 years in tableau during September.

The Club founded in 1907 staged its first play Bholi Gool (Innocent Gool) at Corinthian Theatre. This was followed by many plays written and acted by Parsis.

In the early days, the Club did not permit ladies on stage so young men played all female characters. And some men looked so convincing as women that men from the audience fell in love with them and went backstage with chocolate boxes… only to get a shock!

Calcutta Parsi Amateur Dramatic Club presented Be Bairiwala Burjorji to mark its centenary

The early nataks were serious thematic melodramas like Baap naa Shraap (Father’s curse) or there were wholesome comedies like Aflatoon. In grim plays like Pakzaad Perin, there would be a farcical sub-play in between tragic scenes.

The Club’s music director Cyrus Tata says: "A whole parade of Parsi plays has gone by, leaving a rich cultural heritage, only in the albums.” But in recent years they have also compromised with frivolous farces and "loaded” comedies, with double-entendre, mostly aped from American plays and films.

FIROZE RANGOONWALLA