Playing Mahatma Gandhi is emotionally taxing: ‘Eken Babu’ Anirban Chakrabarti

Kolkata: We all have watched and liked actor Anirban Chakrabarti as simple, fun Bengali detective Eken Babu. Come April 19 and Eken Babu aka Chakrabarti will be seen essaying Mahatma Gandhi in director Sujan Mukhopadhyay’s new Bengali play Mahatma Bonam Gandhi at Rabindra Sadan at 6.30 pm.

“Mahatma Gandhi had once said that his greatest regret was his incapability to convince two people –Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his own eldest son Harilal. Gandhi’s personal life was hugely overshadowed by his larger-than-life political career. His family, particularly his son Hiralal, led a life shrouded in darkness. The play looks at Gandhi, the father of Hiralal and not as the Father of the Nation,” said Chakrabarti.

It’s the tussle between Gandhi and his eldest son Hiralal that forms the crux of the play, which has Nivedita Mukhopadhyay as Kasturba Gandhi, actress Mary Acharya as Gulab Gandhi, Hiralal’s wife and Sujan as Hiralal.

Chakrabarti admits the journey to play Gandhi wasn’t an easy one. “Here was a strict disciplinarian, a man of principles who had ideological differences with his son. Playing Gandhi, especially as the father of Hiralal, was emotionally taxing,” he said.

The actor also believes that it’s not important to look the part in a historical play. “The look becomes crucial when we are working on a film. But in the case of a play, the acting should be convincing. For a play, we work in a fixed space, so a lot depends on the imagination of the audience. When I was approached to play Gandhi, I was worried about getting into the psyche of the character rather than focusing on how I will look,” he said.

Mukhopadhyay couldn’t be happy with Chakrabarti playing Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. “This will be challenging and also a quite contrasting role for an actor of his caliber,” he said.