Whoever came into contact with Girish Chaudhury, the man who remained busy all his life in stagecraft and acting, was certain to be fascinated by the artistic personality and versatility of the Nata Samrat. Girish Chaudhury fitted into the idea of an ideal artiste envisaged by Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwala.

An artiste always regards the pursuit of beauty as the aim in life. He looks upon human beings as the son of Amrit (God). An artiste is invariably drawn towards the beautiful aspect of life. He is not willing to tread on the rugged terrain of politics. His life-long mission is to maintain absolute faith in the honesty and integrity of man and to give an everlasting and concrete expression to the beautiful aspects of an artiste among human beings. Girishda was such an individual, he was such an artiste.

In 1948, Guwahati Shilpi Sangha came into being. The driving force of the Sangha was the triumvirate – Girish Chaudhury, his brother Anil Chaudhury and their nephew Makhan Dewan. They had experimented successfully with various trends of drama and made theatre-going a hobby among the theatre lovers. With reference to the dramatic movement under the aegis of the Guwahati Shilpi Sangha, renowned writer Medini Mohan Chaudhury once said, “Shilpi Sangha gradually established itself. Stage artistes occupied a special place in the society. But in consequence, the Chaudhury family was on the verge of forfeiting their landed property. The government put to auction the property of the Chaudhury brothers as they failed to pay the entertainment tax.” Although it was to be a great catastrophe for an artiste for whom cultural pursuits in the arena of stagecraft and acting were the be all and end all of his life, the government eventually had to beat a hasty retreat.

The present generation do not seem to remember Arya Natya Mancha. Guwahati Shilpi Sangha staged several memorable plays like Pratibad and Chirantan of Anil Chaudhury, Mina Bazar of Girish Chaudhury, Jyotirekha of Natya Prabhakar Satya Prasad Barua, to name only a few, in this mancha, their most remarkable achievement being introduction of co-acting on the stage. Although it was Natyacharyya Brajanath Sarmah who introduced co-acting for the first time in Assam, it was Guwahati Shilpi Sangha that had introduced full-fledged co-acting and sustained the tradition. In fact, Guwahati Shilpi Sangha inspired other theatre groups of the State to go for co-acting, doing away with the practice of male actors donning the costume of a female.

Girish Chaudhury and Anil Chaudhury were also engaged in filmmaking. In 1962 Matir Swarga directed by Anil Chaudhury, was released, where Girishda enacted a major role with elan. Prior to that, in 1953, Girishda appeared in a small role in the bilingual film Beula. People still remember Girishda for his brilliant performance in films like Sarapat, Niyati, Meghmukti, Akan, Manasi, Kazirangar Kahini, Pratisodh, Ai Mor Janame Janame, Ranganadi, Priyajan, etc. Girishda also wrote stage and radio plays, the remarkable ones being Lagan Ukali Gal, Rajniti, Dampatya Kalahe Saiba, Boss, Footbalar Sarasajyya, Ek September, Yuge Yuge, Prahasan, Mina Bazar and Tini Adhyaya.

Since the inception of Akashvani, Shillong and Guwahati centre in 1948, till the year 2000, Girishda took part in innumerable radio plays. He was also, for sometime, the chairman of Jyoti Chitraban. When he took over, the studio was totally in a mess. But Girishda, with his foresight and hard labour, nursed the institution back to its health.

With numerous awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi award and many felicitations, he was in the real sense of the term an Ajatsatru (having no enemy). He was, so to speak, politeness incarnate. He started his acting in early childhood at Machkhowa in Guwahati at a time when there was no infrastructure worth the name. He had an urge to again appear on the stage when the ITA complex at Machkhowa came up. But his dream was not fulfilled. He breathed his last on March 5, 2004 barely two days after the release of a compilation of his articles entitled Suwaran, Matho Suwaran.

With the passing away of Girishda, also called the Chabi Biswas of Assam, a remarkable era of the theatre movement in the State had come to an end. But as we know, an artiste never dies. Girishda will always be remembered as a man of humane character and also for his dedication and steadfast commitment to carry forward the theatre movement of Assam by encouraging co-acting and raising the status of stage artistes, both male and female, in the society.

Courtesy: The Assam Tribune