Sircar's health cause for concern

PUNE: When amateur theatre group Jaagar decided to revive Badal Sircar''s acclaimed play Juloos in Marathi under noted actor-director Amol Palekar''s baton, little did they know that Sircar had recently met with an accident.
Only when they approached the legendary playwright to invite him to the premier show on August 21, did they discover that he had met with an accident nearly two months ago.The path to recovery had been difficult for the 79-year-old. What was more painful was that his condition had virtually gone unnoticed. Therefore, the group, comprising mostly collegians, in advance dispatched a royalty of Rs 10,000 for staging the play.
"We also plan to fly him down to Pune for the premier," revealed Madhav Vaze, noted actor-critic, who heads Jaagar.
A leading theatre personality from Bengal, Sircar rose to prominence with his street theatre, especially his anti-establishment plays, during the Naxalite movement in Kolkata in the ''70s. His plays revolve around social issues involving the masses and often selects his actors from among ordinary people.
An engineer by training, Sircar has authored nearly 50 plays, including trendsetters like Baki Itihas, Pagla Ghoda, Spartacus, Juloos and Prastava. Evam Indrajit and Basi Khabar (Stale News) are his famous works in the theatre-of-the-absurd genre.
The young members of the group, meanwhile, feel doubly privileged to be associated with the play, Vaze said.
"The decision to stage Juloos became possible only because of Palekar''s long-standing rapport with Badal-da. In fact, it was Palkar who had directed the original Marathi adaptation way back in the ''70s. I told the group that they are singularly fortunate to work with Palekar. He, too, was impressed to see the young and committed lot. It is to his credit that he has worked with the group for weeks, without charging a penny," Vaze concluded.