‘Jungle Nama’: A thrilling play for children reimagines the myth of Bonbibi
Based on Amitav Ghosh’s book, this ambitious theatrical project evokes the landscape of Sundarbans while weaving together a tale of myth and magic.
Director Mallika Shah’s rehearsal room is filled with bright blue fishnet, strewn with leaves, and large swathes of grey fabric with a unique sheen. These serve as props for actors to drag around on stage. The fabric moves with them in a serpentine manner, signifying ropes and waves. The attempt is to recreate the impenetrable mangroves of the Sundarbans.
These props are being used in Jungle Nama, based on Amitav Ghosh’s graphic novel by the same name, illustrated by artist Salman Toor. This is an ambitious project for Shah, who has earlier written and directed the popular I Killed My Mother/It Wasn’t My Fault. She was first commissioned to produce Jungle Nama for the Neev Literature Festival in Bengaluru in September 2024. The play now awaits its first public shows. She had read Ghosh’s book a few months prior to the commission and had been struck by the imagery of the Sundarbans that it evoked. “Plus it had a simple story line of greed versus nature," she says.
While the themes may be simplistic, Jungle Nama, which reimagines the myth of Bonbibi, has a delightfully complex narrative. Dokkhin Rai, a demon king and once ruler of the Sundarbans, lives in the forest and takes the shape of the tiger to attack people. Bonbibi, the guardian spirit of the region, and her brother Shah Jongoli are protectors of mankind and lock horns with Dokkhin Rai, eventually trapping him.
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Years later, this balance of power is disrupted by a greedy merchant, Dhona who coaxes his brother Mona to set sail with him in the Sunderbans. They are after a rich bounty of resources like honey, wax, and wood. However, they are a sailor short and rope in their nephew, Dukhey. From here, the story moves to the Sunderbans, where Dokkhin Rai emerges again and a fierce battle ensues.
Does nature trump the greed of the two wealthy men? In the novel, Ghosh recreates the verse meter of dwipodi poyar from the Bengali original—this style is also known as ‘two-footed line’. Some of the lessons from the story also lie in this form, and urge young readers to measure their words and syllables. The novel also offers powerful commentary on climate change and the refugee crisis.
While in its earlier version, Shah had kept the morals of the book intact, this time, she has developed a more nuanced version of this climax. “Dokkhin Rai is not the stereotypical bad guy. Dhona’s want for more isn’t pure evil either. In the Sunderbans, the need for the community to fish outside their borders is also a need. We were careful not to demonise the community and their needs," she says.
While the text has been adapted for the stage, Shah has been careful to keep the syllabic meter intact. The result is a stylised rhythmic narrative that gives the actors enough liberty to play around with, albeit within the framework of the verse. When Mati Rajput, set designer and assistant director, read the black-and-white illustrated pages of the novel, she thought of shadow puppetry. But the early shows in Bengaluru were held in the open air and in broad daylight. “So, we had to come up with a different world. The narrators of the story are fishermen from the Sunderbans, that’s how the fish nets came to be," she says.
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According to Shah, sometimes the constraints of Indian theatre can be a boon. As a result, the team created sets, which are travel-friendly and adaptable to different visual representations. “They also had to have the murkiness of the mangrove, which is so evocative in the novel," she says. Additionally, Dokkhin Rai’s tiger avatar finds its representation in a puppet, while Bonbibi and Shah Jongoli switch in and out of masks.
The actors play many characters; the fight scenes (there are many) feature deft choreography that can evoke both humour and thrill among children. Shah has used tools, which she learnt at a workshop at the National Centre for Performing Arts Connections (a theatre programme for schools) in January this year, to devise the piece. “I used a series of still images pieced together to help develop the action sequences," she says. As a result, Jungle Nama is filled with imagery that is evocative and gritty. It is a play for children, but one that’s sure to keep the adults hooked, too.
‘Jungle Nama’ will be staged at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai on 11 June at 4 pm.
Prachi Sibal is a Mumbai- based culture writer.
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