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Bengal

State govt to set up archive at Girish Chandra Ghose’s house

The state government has decided to set up an archive in the house of Girish Chandra Ghose, father of modern Bengali theatre. 

Though former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had always claimed himself to be a connoisseur of culture and art and a keen lover of cinema who used to visit Nandan complex every day to interact with people associated with cinema and theatre, he did not take any initiative to set up an archive at Girish Chandra’s house as he did not have much respect for the professional stage and also did not have very high opinion about Ghose for his closeness with Sri Ramakrishna.

Partha Mitra, Trinamool Congress councilor who took the initiative, said various photographs of Girish Chandra would be put up. 

Fountains would be set up to decorate the house. There will be six busts of personalities who had come close to Ghose like Sri Ramakrishna, Balaram Bose, Kalipada Ghosh, Amritalal Bose etc. 

On February 28, which is the 182th birth anniversary of Girish Chandra, the building would be decorated with colourful lights and people would be allowed to visit the building. 

A research wing will be set up to facilitate scholars to carry out research on drama particularly the history of Bengali theatre and the role of Girish Chandra. 

The relevance of Ghose’s drama in today’s context will be one of the main objects of research. 

Ghosh (1844-1912) was the father of Bengali  modern theatre. In 1872 he set up the first professional theatre company, National Theatre. 

He shot upto fame because of his production Chaitanyalila at Star Theatre where Noti Binodini acted as Nemai. It was on the life of Sri Chaitanya. Sri Ramakrishna went to see the drama on September 21, 1884. 

Seeking the acting of Binodini he went into trance and blessed her saying “Be conscious (tomar chaitanya hok).” 

Ghose was not only a playwright, he was an actor and his role as Yogesh in Prafulla made him immortal. 

Girish Chandra was very close to Swami Vivekananda and other disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He organised Margaret Elizabeth Nobel’s later known as Sister Nivedita lecture at Star Theatre. He played a leading role in consolidating  Ramakrishna Movement. 
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