Badal Sircar remembered by city theatre activists

CHENNAI: Several students and theatre activists at a programme here on Saturday evening rembered thespian Badal Sircar who passed away last week at his residence in Kolkata. During the programme, leading theatre persons and activists recalled the memories of a person who philosophised the Indian drama.
Writer and theatre personality Gnani said it was Sircar, affectionately known as Badalda among friends, who taught them the urgency and politics of a drama."He developed a feeling of urgency in his plays and his character was similar to a doctor who takes his bicycle and goes to a patient's house in a village instead of waiting for the patient to come to the hospital. He always reminded us that the time is running out, we need to do something'," said Gnani, who has visualized four plays of Sircar in Tamil.
Sircar's students and friends remember him as a person who realized the concept of political drama, the free theatre without compromising with any external factors. "He was the last person of India's political drama. He neither bothered about a stage nor expenses for a demonstration. Badalda's contributions to be assessed from the future theatres in India and its courage to maintain a social concern and reason for theme," said Sadanand Menon, an art critic and friend of Sircar.
The programme was arranged at Spaces, a platform for artists in Besant Nagar.