Osama bin Laden is alive and well and helping keep many hungry souls afloat in West Bengal. Plays based on the terrorist’s story of blinkered hate and lust for messianic vengeance are helping raise the bottomlines of several jatra companies in the state. Osama appears to have become so popular as a stage character that the West Bengal government has leapt up in alarm, asking that some of the performances be banned since they may ‘‘foment communal trouble.’’‘‘The administration should take a look at what these jatras are projecting,’’ cautioned Kartik Ganguly, Minister for Sunderban Affairs, who says he got complaints that the plays were fanning ‘‘anti-national sentiment’’ from his constituency in South 24 Parganas district. The government has already started placing roadblocks in the path of several productions, but its action is actually a measure of how Osama has gripped the imagination of both theatre companies and audiences.‘‘The Saudi terrorist has come as a hero and a saviour for us,’’ declared Shibu Paul, who runs the Jagatjayee Opera which produced Biswa Kapano Laden (World Terror Laden). His company, like so many others, has seen audiences ebb and flow away towards more alluring mediums like television. ‘‘To survive, we have always fallen back on sensational topics. The Kargil war or Saddam Hussain have seen us through our dog days. Last year, we launched a mythological play which fell flat, and we had to turn to Osama to rescue us,’’ Paul added. At least five of the 40-odd jatra companies headquartered in Chitpur in Kolkata have been touring villages in Bengal with plays on Osama since October last year. The shows are said to be quite a success—rural Bengal, it appears, is as intrigued by the al Qaeda chief’s story as are CNN and George Bush.Enter the government, which is hellbent on playing spoiler. Ravi Jana, manager of the Yugantar Opera which was the first to produce a play titled Biswatras Laden (Laden the terror of the world), said. ‘‘We have already staged 40 shows. All of a sudden last week, when we were on our way to Murshidabad, the district administration sent us a fatwa restraining us from staging the play.’’Prashanta Saha was cut to size even before he got started. ‘‘We were interested in launching a play on Osama but we were advised by our friends in Writers’ Buildings not to go ahead with this,’’ Saha, director of Anami Opera, told The Indian Express. His company had already placed advertisements in newspapers announcing its new play. But not all are falling in line: a company in Murshidabad went to court and, armed with a favourable order, continued to stage its Osama play. ‘‘After all, those who have tasted blood are not willing to let go so easily. They are fighting it out,’’ an employee of a theatre company in Kolkata said.
