Khaled Chowdhury was a stage designer who had worked with Shambhu Mitra, Ajitesh Bandopadhyay, Tripti Mitra, Meghnad Bhattacharya, and Manoj Mitra
Theatre personalities congregated on Saturday evening to reminisce the role of Chiroranjan Dutta Chowdhury and his prolific works at a city auditorium.
Known to the world as Khaled Chowdhury, he passed away on April 30 this year after a prolonged illness at the age of 95. The stage designer had worked with eminent Bengali theatre personalities like Shambhu Mitra, Ajitesh Bandopadhyay, Tripti Mitra, Meghnad Bhattacharya, and Manoj Mitra.
Mr. Chowdhury was first entrusted with designing the stage for Raktakarabi written by Rabindranath Tagore and directed by Manoj Mitra in 1954.
From then on, there was no looking back for him. Some of his famous works include working for the sets of Putul Khela, Pagla Ghora, Ebong Indrajit, Dakghar, Gudia Ghar, Sarhad Par Manto and Badnam Manto, Alakanandar Putrokanya, and Mudra Rakshas.
According to Mr. Chowdhury, designing a set was not just the mere arrangement of props on stage. He believed in innovating sets and props, and blending them with artistic flavours.
Born in a village in Assam in 1919, he lost his mother when he was nine years old. His relationship with his father was stormy, often forcing him to run away from home. He ran away to Sylhet, Bangladesh, in 1936.
However, he returned to India in 1943 and settled in Kolkata on the advice of novelist Tarasankar Bandopadhyay.
“Mr. Chowdhury was a man of very firm ideals. As a result, he let go of many awards as he felt they were against his policies. He had strong opinions and refused to budge from them. This led to him being misunderstood as an arrogant person. But those close to him knew his true nature,” veteran theatre personality Manoj Mitra said.
Apart from stage designing, Mr. Chowdhury had designed almost 4,500 book covers and folders for various theatre groups.
He also took interest in music and had composed several songs on the lines of folk music.
Pradip Dutta, one of his close aides, rued the lack of documentary preservation of Mr. Chowdhury’s works.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Kathakali Nandi / Kolkata – July 01st, 2014