The 128-year-old Star Theatre is a relic of Bengal’s once thriving cultural life. But that hasn’t stopped its fortunes from swinging wildly with every change in political dispensation. Debaleena Sengupta traces the ups and downs.
The left’s dethroning from power in Bengal after 34 years may have had a salutary effect on many aspects of life in the state, but it has put a question mark, once again, on the fortunes of Star Theatre, the 128-year-old auditorium on Bidhan Sarani in north Kolkata that is closely associated with the growth of commercial theatre in Bengal. Over the past two decades, the theatre has flourished or floundered with every change in political control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). And now with the Trinamool Congress — installed in the civic body as also in Writer’s Building — deciding not to renew the management contract that the earlier Left dispensation had awarded a private operator, Star Theatre faces a bleak future.
Established in 1883, Star Theatre is the oldest surviving public theatre in the city; its current building came up in 1900. It was also where the first Bengali film, Hira Lal Sen’s Biswa Mangal, was screened in 1919. It has had several pioneers of Bengali theatre as patrons — Girish Ghosh, who co-founded Great National Theatre, the first Bengali professional theatre company, in 1872; Ardhendu Shakhar Mustafi, an acclaimed actor of the time, and Nati Binodini, a courtesan who became a leading actress. One of the many notable stories told about Star Theatre concerns the mystic seer Ramakrishna Paramhansa who went into a trance while watching Binodini in Chaitanyalila, a play based on the life of the Vaishnava saint Chaitanya.
It is Binodini who, determined to create institutions for Bengali theatre at a time when acting and viewing plays was looked down upon, took the lead in establishing Star Theatre. “Binodini loved theatre and she used her own money to construct Star Theatre, even agreeing to become the mistress of a wealthy north Kolkata businessman in order to raise funds,” says Sunil Gangopadhyay, the popular Bengali novelist and president of the Sahitya Akademi. “Binodini wanted the theatre to be named after her but her mentor, Girish Ghosh, had reservations because he thought it would outrage the conservative, male-dominated society,” adds Gangopadhyay. “Ghosh named it ‘Star’ alluding to Binodini’s popularity in Bengali theatre.”
Over the years, Star Theatre has staged plays by most major playwrights in Bengali; several well-known actors of Bengali cinema — Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sabitri Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee — have performed here at some stage in their careers. The theatre went into decline in later decades and finally shut down after a major fire in 1991.
In 2004, KMC, then ruled by the Trinamool Congress, undertook extensive reconstruction of the heritage structure. Keeping the baroque facade, entrance lobby and “Mandirtala” (the open air arena on the first floor) intact, the original building was expanded horizontally and vertically. In addition, a second building was erected behind, which houses a restaurant, banquet hall and parking area. In 2005, barely a year of its inauguration by former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Star Theatre shut down again.
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The CPI(M), which came to power in 2005, then decided to bring in a private operator. “Managing a theatre needs skilled management and does not fall under the purview of a municipal corporation; thus it was decided to lease out the property,” says a senior official of the Municipal Board of the time who does not wish to be named. Expressions of interest were invited, and in September 2006, Arijit Dutta of Priya Entertainments, which runs several cinema halls in the city and state, was given a five-year lease to manage Star Theatre.
The lease expires on March 31, 2012 and KMC has decided not to renew it. “It was the Left municipal board that decided to hand it over to a private entrepreneur, but we are against commercialisation of culture. We will bring back Star Theatre under KMC,” says Sovan Chatterjee, KMC mayor.
“The government’s decision comes just when Star Theatre had begun to make a profit,” says Dutta who converted Star Theatre into an airconditioned single-screen movie hall with 514 seats; plays were limited to one or two shows a month. “Our intention was to subsidise culture with commerce. The movie hall was a profit-making proposition; the theatre hall wasn’t viable,” says Dutta. Of course, there were Shondhatara, the open-air rooftop restaurant; the banquet hall which is hired out on rent; and the two restaurants, Bhojohori Manna and Vasco, to earn some revenues. In the past two years, Star Theatre has been making a profit of Rs 5-6 lakh per annum, which is remarkable since tickets have had to be priced at a low Rs 50, given Star Theatre’s location in a middle-class neighbourhood.
Of late, however, the heritage structure has developed cracks, probably the result of shortcomings in the restoration work done earlier. “Large cracks have begun to appear on the walls and there are leaks on the ceilings,” says Ashok Ray, the caretaker. “In the rains, the green rooms are flooded and we have to clear water manually from the rooms,” he adds. “There are angular defects in the alignment of the raised theater podium and the audience gallery, which could be the result of hasty renovation by KMC,” says Dutta. “Our company has spent an additional Rs 65 lakh to build new infrastructure and Rs 96.5 lakh for repairs,” he adds. But now, he says, the new building erected to support the old structure is slowly sinking, which has caused large cracks to appear on the walls.
Clearly, Star Theatre needs another major renovation. But will KMC, which owns the property and has staked its claim to manage it, be willing to make this investment?