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Plays about Ramakrishna

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(The above is a preliminary title for the page, for after it is moved to article space)
Sri Ramakrishna in October, 1885

Ramakrishna (1836 – 1886), born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay[1] and often referred to as Sri Ramakrishna, was a famous mystic of 19th-century India.[2]

Since the middle 1900s, Ramakrishna has been a primary or secondary focus of a number of plays, mostly made in Bengali theatre, but also {???}.

Many of these plays have been both devotional and biographical, portraying major events of Ramakrishna's influential life. Ramakrishna grew up in a small village in rural West Bengal. Most of his adult life was spent at a temple at Dakshineswar in the outskirts of Calcutta (now commonly called Kolkata). Within a few years of his death, Ramakrishna's religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda[3] Many plays about Ramakrishna depict events from these parts of his life and legacy.

Ramakrishna's direct involvement with theatre

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As a boy, Ramakrishna participated in theatrical productions in his village. The location where he acted is being restored.[4] In one production, when Ramakrishna, then called Gadadhar, was required to play the god Shiva, he went into ecstasy for several hours.{ref}

Ramakrishna's visit as an audience member to the Star Theatre in 1884 was a transformative moment for Bengali Theatre, especially for Girish Chandra Ghosh and Binodini Dasi.{get ref}

His influence is remembered in Bengali Theatre.{source and details?}

Actors portraying Ramakrishna

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Many different actors have played Ramakrishna.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, Gurudas Banerjee[5] portrayed Ramakrishna in numerous plays in the Bengali Theatre and films in the Bengali Cinema — one might almost say that beginning in the late 1940s, "he almost monopolized this role [as Ramakrishna] as a specialist, both on the stage and on the screen,"[6]: 688  and was still portraying Ramakrishna in the late-1970s.[7] Sushil Mukherjee explained that the drama Jugadevata, which debuted on the Calcutta stage on 19 November 1948,

was a devotional drama... on the life of the Saint of Dakshineswar [that] became immensely popular and established two artistes who became wholly identified with the two characters they represented. These were Gurudas Banerjee who was seen as Sri Ramkrishna and Molina Debi who appeared as Rani Rasmoni, the founder of the famous Bhabatarini (Kali) temple at Dakshineswar. Since their appearance in Jugadevata at Kalika in 1948 Gurudas and Molina have appeared in the characters of these two persons in a number of other plays, both on the stage and on the screen, and have carried the audience with them in every performance.[6]: 288 

Another actor who frequently played the part of Ramakrishna was Ajit Kumar Panja ((September 13, 1936 – 14 November 2008)).[8] He portrayed the role of Ramakrishna for 30-35 years at a stretch.{source}

Ajit Kumar Panja was reportedly "floored with the deification that followed his portrayal of Ramakrishna".[9]

List of Plays about Ramakrishna

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Some plays have a primary focus on Ramakrishna (designated by asterisk (*)). Other plays depict a contemporary of Ramakrishna, and he appears as a character, sometimes major and sometimes minor. These include plays about {???}.

Grid

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Opening date Title Play-wright Rama-krishna (actor) Director Location Notes & Sources
* 1948 Nov. 19 Jugadebata Tarak Mukherjee Gurudas Banerjee Kalika Theatre (Calcutta) Bengali; Source;[6]: 688  Also Molina Devi (Rani Rashmoni)
* 1955 Thakur Sri Ramakrishna Gurudas Banerjee Minerva Theatre (Calcutta) Source;[6]: 292  Also Molina Debi (Rani Rashmoni). Part of a state Congress celebration
* 1960 Mar. 19 Paramaradhya Sri Sri Ramakrishna Devanayaran Gupta Gangadas Bhattacharya[6]: 301  Star Theatre (Calcutta)[6]: 301  Source;[10]: v2p1510  Also Ajit Bandopadhyay (Ramkumar),[6]: 667  Anup Kumar (Hridaya),[6]: 671  Aparna Debi (Rani Rashmoni),[6]: 672  Bhanu Banerjee]] (Sankar Gossain),[6]: 677  Gita Dey (Jagadamba),[6]: 687  Kamal Mitra (Mathur Babu),[6]: 697  Played 76 nights until 10 July 1960.[6]: 302 
1975 Nata Nati Ganesh Mukherjee Gurudas Banerjee Ganesh Mukherjee Rangana Theatre (Calcutta) Source;[6]: 342, 688, 777  Kartick Banerjee (Girish Gose), Basanti Chaterjee (Binodini), Sudhangsu Maiti (Narendranath), and others. Over 300 performances
* ?? Sri Sri Ramakrishna Brajendra Kishore Dey Ajit Kumar Panja From WP for actor Panja, states: "made according to the story of Noti Binodini written by Late. Brajendra Kishore Dey) organised by Kolkata High Court Advocate's Drama Association in India. The play was staged in London and USA (Washington, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles"
* ?? Parampurush Ramakrishna A theatrical play "Parampurush" (Bapi Bose, dir.) was reviewed in The Hindu 9 Dec 2009 Perhaps it was shown on ETV Bangla? - SEE HERE

* = Primarily about Sri Ramakrishna

Spelling variations in names

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The English titles of these plays refer to Ramakrishna in a variety of ways, depending upon the play's original non-English title, and the method of transliteration into English. Several different methods are commonly used for transliterating Bengali into English. Bengali often uses Bs where other Indian languages use Vs (e.g., "Bhagaban" versus "Bhagavan"). Thus, titles of plays about Ramakrishna refer to both "Ramkrishna" (with only 2 "a"s) as well as "Ramakrishna," and may describe his mystical status in numerous ways ranging from Paramahamsa ("enlightened teacher") to Bhagaban ("divine and splendrous") to Thakur ("lord") to Jugadebata ("divine incarnation of the present age"{TITO OR OTHER BENGALI SPEAKER, IS THIS CORRECT FOR jugadebata?-Presearch}). Similar variety exists in the transliterations of the names of many Bengali actors that appeared in these plays — for example, alternate spellings of the last name of actor Gurudas Bannerjee are "Banerjee" (one "n") well as "Bandyopadhyay."[11]

Major focus on Ramakrishna (theatrical plays)

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{XXX} plays have had a major focus on Ramakrishna.

Jugadebata (1948)

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{expand}

Thakur Sri Ramakrishna (1955)

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{expand using info from Gurudas Banerjee page about Illustrated Weekly}

Paramaradhya Sri Sri Ramakrishna (1960)

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Opened 1960 Mar. 19 {expand, move most of cast list here}

Parampurush Ramakrishna (2009)

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{expand}

Secondary focus on Sri Ramakrishna (plays)

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Several playss have not had a primary focus on Sri Ramakrishna, but have cast him as a secondary character. These include: {EXPAND VIA INTRO ABOUT MAJOR THEMES}

Ongoing interest

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Additional bibliography (to integrate into article)

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?

References

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  1. ^ Smart, Ninian The World’s Religions (1998) p.409, Cambridge
  2. ^ Feuerstein, Georg (2002). The Yoga Tradition. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 600.
  3. ^ Clarke, Peter Bernard (2006). New Religions in Global Perspective. Routledge. p. 209. The first Hindu to teach in the West and founder of the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, Swami Vivekananda,[...] is also credited with raising Hinduism to the status of a world religion.
  4. ^ Sanjib Chakraborty (2012, Nov 5). "Plays to promote peace on 'Gadai's stage'" Times of India.
  5. ^ http://vidgrids.com/gurudas-bandopadhaya
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Mukherjee, Sushil Kumar (1982). The Story of the Calcutta Theatres, 1753-1980. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi.
  7. ^ Gurudas Banerjee played Ramakrishna in the film Jata Mat Tata Path (1979). Mukherjee's (1982) Story states that Gurudas Banerjee was "a popular actor [who] made his stage debut at Kalika in the late-forties of the [20th] century appearing as Sri Ramakrishna in Yugadevata (1948). Since then he has almost monopolized the role as a specialist, both on the stage and on the screen. His recent appearance in this role was in Nata Nati at Rangana (1975).... He has his own touring theatre, M. G. Enterprise..." (p. 688)
  8. ^ Google Search for Ajit Panja Ramakrishna -Wikipedia
  9. ^ Anonymous (14 July 2014). [When the mask doesn't melt into the skin "When the mask doesn't melt into the skin"]. Times of India. Retrieved 4 August 2014. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
  10. ^ Amaresh Datta (1988). Encyclopedia of Indian Literature New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 8126011947, ISBN 9788126011940
  11. ^ Similarly, Mukhopadhyay and Mukherjee are alternate forms; and Ramakrishna's own birth surname, Chattopadhyay, is alternately written Chatterjee.