Star Theatre is now Binodini Mancha: The life of Nati Binodini, the ‘fallen woman’ who scaled great heights

A promise and a betrayal

Born in 1863, Binodini was one of the first few women to join theatre in Bengal as professional actors. She found great success, but had to contend with the stigma of her birth in a red light district and of being a woman who performed publicly.

When the Star Theatre was being built, Gurumukh Roy, a young businessman, had promised to fund it if Binodini agreed to be his mistress. She was persuaded to do so, with the promise that the theatre would be named B. Theatre in her honour. But when the theatre was finally ready in 1883 (at a different location from where it stands now), it was named Star Theatre. Many believe it was this betrayal that caused Binodini to quit acting, at the height of her popularity.

However, after stepping off the stage, Binodini took greater control over her own story. In 1913, her autobiography, Aamar Katha, was published, in which she wrote in detail about the challenges caste, class, and patriarchy threw her way.

The 2006 play Nati Binodini was based on Amaar Katha. It was directed by Amal Allana and designed by Nissar Allana. (Image Courtesy: Alkazi Theatre Archives)

“Even though it has taken more than a century to right an injustice, I am thrilled to learn of the decision to finally name the Star Theatre after Binodini. It speaks volumes about the acceptance of a woman’s worth and work without judging her on the basis of caste,” noted theatre director Amal Allana, who directed the play ‘Nati Binodini’ in 2006, told The Indian Express.

Riding a new wave

Binodini was born into a poor family in a Kolkata suburb inhabited by sex workers. Struggle for money was so acute in the family that her five-year-old brother was married off and the dowry used to buy food. The family also took in lodgers, one of whom was the tawaif Ganga Bai. Ganga Bai taught the child Binodini to sing, and also introduced her to the theatre.

This was the time when the theatre scene in Bengal was changing. Inspired by European-style dramas, more professional plays were being staged. Traditionally, female parts on stage had been played by men, but in order to make their shows more profitable, theatre owners and directors were now willing to employ actual women. Since bhadralok (a Bengali term for respectable, civilised society) women were unlikely to perform in public, these new artistes were being recruited largely from among tawaifs.

Binodini played her first part when she was 12. Her talent was noticed by Girish Ghosh, one of the best writers/managers of the theatre scene in Bengal, and soon, she became a successful actor.

However, fame was not necessarily a positive thing. “Binodini’s life saw heady highs and lows. While she was hailed for her talent, the class and caste-ridden society also castigated the ‘polluted’ woman donning the garb of either devi or Brahmin royalty on stage,” Allana said.

Hailed and reviled

Author Rimli Bhattacharya, in her paper ”Public Women’: Early Actresses of the Bengali Stage — Role and Reality’ (India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 17, The Calcutta Psyche (Winter 1990/1991)), noted that theatre actresses in the late 19th century were in the unique position of being ‘public women’ actually performing in public, as opposed to “respectable women” confined to their homes, and walled-off sex workers who were visited in secret.

Even the men who wanted to take these actresses as mistresses — thus offering stability and a shot at some version of ghar sansar (the ideal domestic life) — often put quitting theatre as a precondition.

The Star Theatre episode shows the duality in treatment Binodini received. The new theatre depended on her “star power” for finances as well as eventual revenue, but being named after her was a financial risk. Bhattacharya writes, “… She learnt only after the formal registration that the new theatre house was to be called the Star Theatre. It was felt that naming it after her would run counter to public opinion and might even invite a boycott.”

Binodini did attain a sort of “absolution” while on stage. In 1884, Ramakrishna Paramhansa came to watch her play the sage Chaitanya, and praised her performance. “If Binodini is well known enough to be cited as one of Calcutta’s proud possessions, it is largely because she is seen to have redeemed/ raised herself by virtue of her encounter with Sri Ramakrishna,” Bhattacharya writes.

Binodini’s Amaar Katha: In her own words

After quitting the theatre, Binodini became the second wife of a wealthy man. However, her hurts still smarted, and in 1913, she decided to write her story. In the preface, she says she had chosen to put pen to paper as there was no one she could confide in, no kin or companion to share her pain with, because “the world sees me as a sinner — a fallen woman.” This autobiography became important for her story, but also as a historical record of a shadowy world.

“That Binodini was a fantastic actor is known from the newspaper reviews of her plays and from what others have said about her in various books and journals. But her autobiography is valuable also for what she says about others. It is a great documentation of the environment the earliest women actors on stage in Bengal encountered,” Deepro Majumder, theatre practitioner and Assistant Professor, Kandi Raj College, West Bengal, said.

Majumder noted that the British government’s Dramatic Performances Act of 1876 had been passed around the time Binodini was maturing as a performer. Thus, the plays she was starring in also show what content was considered “safe” and likely to make money in recently colonised Bengal.

Allana too alluded to how Binodini and other artistes were finding their feet in a changing milieu.

“Aamar Katha is not only a riveting account of a woman artist’s long journey towards acceptance by the bhadralok society, but also a document of how a traditional people falteringly transit towards a new colonial world, coming to terms with its pressures,” she said.