Anirban's Pontu Laha 2.0 to be premiered at Purba Paschim’s festival

Anirban Bhattachary’s comeback directorial, Pontu Laha 2.0, for his own theatre group, Sangharam, will be premiered in Purba Paschim’s theatre festival that will commence on October 31. The play will be staged on November 3.
Talking about the show, Anirban said, “Soumitrada (Mitra, head of Purpa Paschim) and I met a few months ago at an event. We were discussing the play and he asked if we would like to premiere it there.I spoke to my team. They agreed and I realised it would be ready by that time.”
Pontu Laha 2.0 is an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Mr Puntila and his Man Matti. Anirban started the project a couple of years ago before taking a break from theatre. While it was stalled for a year, the actor is now set to stage it this year. “I thought of directing it in 2017, but it was shelved due to my constant commitment towards cinema. Instead, I directed a 45-minute-long short play, Udorniti,” said Anirban, who is also playing the character of Shakil Ansari (junior) in PontuLaha 2.0. The play will also feature several other actors, like Prasenjit Bardhan, Debraj Bhattacharya, Anuron Sengupta, Shubhanwita, Satrajit Sarkar, Madhurima Goswami and Ujan Chatterjee in prominent roles.
Brecht’s original play is translated in Bengali by Nihar Bhattacharya and Asaduzzaman Noor. “My team member Pratik Dutta and I have worked on the translation and penned the script,” Anirban informed. While the light designed is by Sudip Sanyal, the stage is created by illustrator Sankha Banerjee. Anirban Bhattacharya and Shubhodip Guho have composed the music for the play.