In what can only be described as a treat for Guwahati, G Plus hosted the second edition of Guwahati Theatre Festival. Much like the first edition, a stellar cast waltzed into the city and shook it up. We spoke to actor, director, producer, TV personality, Radio Jockey, Video Jockey and a first time visitor to the Guwahati Theatre Festival, Puranjit Dasgupta or as you would know him, Mantra.
Mantra performed two Shakespeare plays in the second edition of Guwahati Theatre Festival. ‘What’s Done Is Done’ is a clown play, based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth and ‘Piya Behrupiya’ is based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
You have had the experience of several different professions. How different is Radio, Theatre, TV and Films?
Mantra: I personally believe Radio is the theatre of the mind. It is exactly what we do on stage but without the visuals. Radio is a blind man’s theatre. It’s where you create pictures and visuals by the medium of sound, and sound has a great impact on people’s mind. If I tell you of a pink elephant, you will think of one, and if I ask you not to, you’ll still think of a pink elephant. That’s how radio works.
I am a storyteller. It could be theatre, radio or any other medium for that matter, but I am telling you a story. For me, only the mediums change, but my approach towards it has always been that of a storyteller.
On stage, do you take an expectation about the audience?
Mantra: Well, of course I do! People who say that they’re not bothered about the audience are lying. People who say they’re performing just for themselves are lying. Every actor wants appreciation and that’s why we become actors. Every actor needs applause and when that happens from an audience, we connect immediately.
There have been times we performed in auditoriums with full capacity, but it felt like a graveyard, as if everybody was dead. With this, the show automatically dies too. An actor or a play is just one part. It is the audience that completes the show.
Your expectations from the Guwahati audience?
Mantra: I’ve heard Guwahati is a cultural capital. There have been great artists from Assam and Guwahati and I know that they’re art lovers. So I know that they will appreciate what we bring for them on stage and hopefully, we entertain them. For one, it is a great thing to be a part of a festival with two different approaches.
Your experience on working with two different teams and directors for two different plays?
Mantra: Atul Kumar has been an invisible mentor for me even before I joined him. I’ve been watching Atul and Rajat do clown shows for many years and I always dreamt of doing a clown show with them which happened with Macbeth, when Rajat cast me. But Piya Behrupiya happened earlier. The experience of Piya Behrupiya for me in my theatre career has absolutely been on top, the best thing that could’ve happened to me in theatre.
Mantra’s Guwahati connection?
Mantra’s mother is an alumnus of St. Mary’s Convent, Guwahati which he describes as coming to ‘Mum’s Land’.
