When Hitler Took a Bow

Shantigopal Pal rewrote jatra history by taking Hitler, Lenin and Marx to Bengal’s villages. As he takes his final bow, it’s time for a standing ovation.

Hitler changed Bengali jatra (folk theatre) forever. More specifically, Shantigopal Pal, in his role as the German dictator, ushered in a new era of jatra. An era that crossed a milestone when the thespian Pal staged his last show in Kolkata on 7 March. Jatra was loud, kitschy, crass and exclusively mythological—taking events from the Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata etcetera—till Shantigopal turned it contemporary with a leftist twist. Starting with Hitler, Shantigopal played the roles of Lenin, Marx, Mao, Salvador Allende, Subhas Bose, Raja Rammohun Roy, Vivekananda and many other famous personas, earning plaudits and, as he proudly claims, educating rural folk about these famous personalities. Shantigopal’s versatility, his make-up, stage presence, dialogue delivery and stagecraft made him a household name in Bengal, perhaps even beyond.

Joining amateur theatre as a 16-year-old in 1950, Shantigopal played various roles before joining a jatra group—Royal Binapani Opera—five years later to support his family. “Those first five years when I was made to play a wide array of characters by director Amal Ghosh made me the versatile actor I became,” he tells Open, recalling the days of touring rural areas in open trucks. Though jatra is based on stories from ancient texts, Shantigopal’s group started lok natak (socially relevant plays for the common man) in the early 1960s. “People were tired of the loud roles and the same old stories. Those were the days of change, of trade and peasants’ unions being formed, of communism’s rise, the success of Ipta. Jatra became unacceptable to the educated and urban folk. I knew it was time to change,” the 77-year-old says.

He formed his own group, Tarun Opera, in 1964 with loans from moneylenders. The group debuted with a play written by the legendary Brojendra Kumar Dey on Indo-Pak and Sino-Indian disputes. “I hired top stage artists like Dilip Chattopadhyay, Panna Chakraborty, Phanibhushan and Sujit Pathak for the lead roles. But after a few years, I couldn’t afford them and started casting myself in the lead. The first was Ghum Bhangar Gaan (wake-up song) written by Shambhu Bag on the atrocities against the landless by zamindars. It was a hit. That emboldened me to try something revolutionary—play Hitler on the jatra stage. People thought I was mad,” says Shantigopal. He studied photos, books and newspaper accounts of Hitler. “I have this God-gifted ability to understand a person’s character, traits, mannerisms by looking at photos,” he says. “I invited well-known reviewers for the first show of Hitler. They came on stage after the performance and garlanded me. Then I invited professors of Rabindra Bharati University to a show. They were spellbound. The play was a runaway success in the rural areas,” recalls the ageing actor who now suffers from a host of ailments that prompted his retirement from acting.

Hitler was followed by Lenin—which got a special award from the Soviet Union—and then plays on Marx, Mao, Bose, Birsa Munda and many others. Never before had such figures been depicted in jatra. “I also played Spartacus, another first in jatra. A play on Mohenjodaro got rave reviews and former Tripura CM Nripen Chakraborty told me he liked it the most among all my plays,” says Shantigopal.

Shantigopal’s last play—his association with the stage will continue as a director and through his own theatre group, Nandik, formed five years ago—was Janashatru, depicting corruption in the political system and written by his ailing wife Chaitali. Those who watched the play on Sunday were awestruck by the transformation of Shantigopal from an ageing and ailing man in real life to a young and fiery college teacher on stage. Just as thousands of others had all over Bengal these past six decades.

Bengalfolk theatreHitlerjatraLeninMarxShantigopal Pal