In Scene 3, we travel to a private mental health research institute and ‘Care Home’ in Ranchi where we meet the ‘matron’ who is in charge of the women’s section of the facility. Three inmates, #14, #10 and #8 are going through a typical day. Each of them suffers from a benign personality disorder, each convinced that she is, in fact, a famous character - fictional or real. One is the iconic villain Gabbar Singh from the film Sholay, the second a legendary Bengali film star Suchitra Sen of the black-and white era, and the third, Lata Mangeshkar, one of the all-time great singers. Matron is a kindly soul, but she is perpetually chasing her tail trying to manage the three. Suddenly one of the male inmates of the Care Home comes in running, and mayhem ensues. The harassed matron calls the male guards to help. The moment they charge in, the inmates scuttle back, and the male inmate - so far enjoying the capers - becomes frozen with sheer terror. Matron is a bit uneasy when the two guards - Babushona and Kartik - let fall a few words about how they run their business in the other part of the facility, but they refuse to say more and chase the male escapee back. Scene 4 shifts to ‘Hotel Bewti’ in Ranchi and its medley of characters. Ponchanon is the shrewd manager who may not know how to spell, but sure knows how to do business. He is ably assisted by the cook Protima or Poti, who is cut from the same cloth. There’s no love lost between the two but they have an unholy alliance. A young boy Botol (= Bottle) is the dogsbody at the hotel, and Dadu - an elderly gentleman whose perpetual companion is a brick-like transistor radio - is a fixture at the hotel. Enter Professor Jogobondhu with his entourage. While he’s introducing himself to the manager, a stranger arrives and stops on his tracks seeing the Professor. He’s, in fact, none other than Dr Nakul Naskar, the owner of the Mental Care Home we have seen in the previous scene. By a strange coincidence, he turns out to be an old classmate of the professor, meeting him after decades. His overfamiliar manner makes the quiet professor a bit uneasy, but when Dr Naskar invites his old friend along with his whole family to his care home, the good-natured professor can’t refuse. After all, what better way could there be for his ‘nephews’ to fulfil their dream? It is agreed that they will move out of the hotel into Dr Naskar’s home in a couple of days’ time.
Detailed Synopsis (scene by scene): Scene 1 - Tyapa and Modna are two young school dropouts living in a slum. They had grown up as pickpockets, but had eventually turned around and helped the police catch a gang of smugglers. This had earned them a lot of awards, and for a while, things were great. But human memory being notoriously short, even their own families started to abuse and ill-treat them again. The play opens with Modna lamenting that there’s no hope for them to look forward to a bright future. Tyapa, however, remains optimistic. He reminds Modna that they have dreams which are yet to be fulfilled, and maybe it’s time to give it a try to live a better life. Convinced by Tyapa’s enthusiasm, Modna agrees to approach Professor Jogobondhu Bose, their respected neighbour, with a request that’s very close to their hearts. In Scene 2, we see the retired professor in his house, chatting with his precocious granddaughter Mili. All is well until Tyapa and Modna climb up the water pipe and land on his balcony. All hell suddenly breaks loose but eventually they all calm down, and the professor recognises them as two faces he’d seen on posters in the neighbourhood. Tyapa and Modna explain that their past may have been questionable but they’re reformed now, and they’ve come to the professor with a special request. However, before they can explain, Sadhona, the professor’s old helping hand, returns from the shops and freaks out seeing two unknown, unkempt young men apparently having a heart-to-heart with her master. Sadhona is fiercely protective of the professor and his family. She’s a formidable warrior… but her single weakness is extreme ticklishness! Tyapa and Modna play a strategic game to break down Sadhona’s defence soon, and explain that they’ve no evil designs. One of their dreams is to visit the famous lunatic asylum at Ranchi, so could the professor - who goes on holidays frequently - perhaps take them along? The idealistic professor is amused first, and then moved when he hears that the two young men have never had a proper train ride. He will take them, he says, but on one condition. They must go as his nephews, not as ‘servants’ or subordinates of any sort. They will call him ‘uncle,’ and will be treated as part of the family. Sadhona is extremely suspicious still, but Tyapa and Modna are moved by the generosity of the Professor and resolve to justify his trust in them.
After the Interval, Scene 5 takes us back to Dr Naskar’s Care Home. The professor and his family have been staying with Dr Naskar for the last few days. Tyapa and Modna’s dream has come true - but it isn’t quite what they had expected. The atmosphere at the care home is oppressive, the two ‘guards’ look more like goons, and the sweet-talking doctor has been observed walking stealthily into a room that has been declared as ‘off limits.’ Most importantly, Tyapa and Modna find that the so-called ‘loons’ are actually helpless ordinary people. The two young men and the professor are shocked to the core when they accidentally become witnesses to merciless beating of the helpless men - apparently an everyday activity at the ‘care home.’ The doctor tries to explain it away by saying that it’s part of their treatment and if they’re not beaten, they would become violent or harm themselves. The professor doesn’t know what to believe, but Tyapa and Modna are thoroughly sceptical - especially when they hear the tortured men insist that the doctor is a criminal. He ‘drills into’ their skulls and gives them electric shocks, they say, they’ve been lured into this hellhole by the doctor and by ‘that hotel manager.’ Although they sound hysterical and incoherent, their united pleas to inform the police and punish the doctor make Tyapa and Modna very suspicious indeed.
In Scene 7, we’re back at Naskar’s Care Home. The three women - #s 14, 8 and 10 - are having another ‘fun’ day, still driving the good-natured matron nuts because today they have switched personas. Kartik, the assistant guard, is engrossed in a pulp thriller. He scuttles out when the main guard Babushona calls him; and the women also call it a day soon. Immediately, Professor Jogobondhu and Sadhona enter, followed by the doctor. We come to know that Tyapa and Modna have ‘disappeared’ since the day of the picnic. They’d gone to the city and have, apparently, not returned. The professor is extremely worried, not only because he feels responsible for their welfare, but also because he’s become very fond of them. He wants to inform the police but Sadhona and the doctor both dissuade him. Sadhona is still convinced that Tyapa and Modna have stolen something and done the bunk, and the doctor says the police will be very suspicious if the professor tries to report the disappearance of two youths with a murky past, who are not even related to him by blood. The professor, worried sick but helpless, agrees to the doctor’s proposal that they should wait longer.
In Scene 8, we discover Tyapa and Modna lying unconscious in the room marked as ‘off-limits.’ When they come to, we learn that their food had been doped and they had been carried to this room in a semi-conscious state by the two guards. They soon hear sounds, and sneak up to the partition to see Dr Naskar clad in his hospital gear, getting ready for operation. The hapless #3, groaning, is dragged in by the two guards and placed on a makeshift bed while Dr Naskar uses a giant syringe to extract some fluid from his brain. Tyapa and Modna run back and assume their unconscious pose on the floor. When the two guards come over to check on them, the two young men spook them out by repeating some ‘secrets’ which they had just overheard. Dr Naskar appears soon, and danger looms as he says it’s time to operate on Tyapa and Modna. This will cause permanent damage to their brains and turn them into vegetables. But just as the guards are asked to beat Tyapa and Modna into submission, a young voice is heard singing very loudly (albeit tunelessly) a line from a famous patriotic song. Tyapa jumps up to sing the next line, even more tunelessly. This was the pre-arranged signal between Botol the Braveheart and the twin stars. When Botol had come looking for the young men, he was shooed away; and, instantly suspicious, he had alerted the Professor. Now the professor runs in followed by Botol, and announces that the police have also arrived. The guards, terrified, run away. Dr Naskar tries bluster first, but deflates immediately when he realises that his illegal business of extracting brain serum and selling it for medical research has been discovered.
The Professor further shares a fact he’s learned from the police that the ‘doctor’ is actually not a doctor at all. He has been impersonating his brother Sahadeb Naskar. Years ago, when the two brothers were travelling by train to Ranchi for Sahadeb to take up the lead position at the ‘Care Home,’ he had died mysteriously. The police suspect that Nakul may have pushed his brother from the train. Nakul, however, hotly denies this and says that Sahadeb had died of a heart attack and he’d merely taken advantage of that. In a rare moment of honesty, he shares his bitterness about his family - Sahadeb had always been the ‘good’ child and had received all attention and accolades, throwing Nakul’s lack of success into relief. Decades of failure and neglect had made him into what he’d become, claims Nakul. Tyapa confronts him, however, and says that despite having a hard life, unlike Nakul, Modna and he hadn’t turned rotten. Sadhona and Mili appear now - Sadhona has had a change of heart about Tyapa and Modna, and welcomes them into the family. And finally, the ‘numbers’ are freed - they become human again.
In Scene 6, we find Tyapa and Modna on their way to ‘Hotel Bewti’ to do some sleuthing. They’ve refused to go on a picnic with the others and have sneaked out. Modna warns Tyapa to be cautious, especially about the cook Poti, towards whom Tyapa has already displayed some softness. Tyapa assures his young friend that he may be a softie underneath, but he can tell the good apple from the rotten. At Hotel Bewti, we find Poti and the manager Ponchanon arguing. Poti wants a bigger cut from their mysterious extra income and Ponchanon keeps refusing. Seeing Tyapa and Modna, they become apprehensive. Tyapa plays up to Poti, and soon she lets slip a careless comment about the ‘special care’ job she does to earn extra money. Modna has also found out from Botol that in the past, a steady stream of hotel guests has disappeared without leaving a trace. Tyapa and Modna are beginning to put the pieces of the jigsaw together, and Modna commissions Botol’s services as their assistant on the ground. He whispers a code into Botol’s ear, to be used in an emergency.
![Mera Babu Chail Chabila-Runa Laila[New Version]](/img/n.gif)
In Scene 3, we travel to a private mental health research institute and ‘Care Home’ in Ranchi where
we meet the ‘matron’ who is in charge of the women’s section of the facility. Three inmates, #14, #10
and #8 are going through a typical day. Each of them suffers from a benign personality disorder, each
convinced that she is, in fact, a famous character - fictional or real. One is the iconic villain Gabbar
Singh from the film Sholay, the second a legendary Bengali film star Suchitra Sen of the black-and white era,
and the third, Lata Mangeshkar, one of the all-time great singers. Matron is a kindly soul,
but she is perpetually chasing her tail trying to manage the three. Suddenly one of the male inmates
of the Care Home comes in running, and mayhem ensues. The harassed matron calls the male guards
to help. The moment they charge in, the inmates scuttle back, and the male inmate - so far enjoying
the capers - becomes frozen with sheer terror. Matron is a bit uneasy when the two guards -
Babushona and Kartik - let fall a few words about how they run their business in the other part of the
facility, but they refuse to say more and chase the male escapee back.
Scene 4 shifts to ‘Hotel Bewti’ in Ranchi and its medley of characters. Ponchanon is the shrewd
manager who may not know how to spell, but sure knows how to do business. He is ably assisted by
the cook Protima or Poti, who is cut from the same cloth. There’s no love lost between the two but
they have an unholy alliance. A young boy Botol (= Bottle) is the dogsbody at the hotel, and Dadu - an
elderly gentleman whose perpetual companion is a brick-like transistor radio - is a fixture at the hotel.
Enter Professor Jogobondhu with his entourage. While he’s introducing himself to the manager, a
stranger arrives and stops on his tracks seeing the Professor. He’s, in fact, none other than Dr Nakul
Naskar, the owner of the Mental Care Home we have seen in the previous scene. By a strange
coincidence, he turns out to be an old classmate of the professor, meeting him after decades.
His overfamiliar manner makes the quiet professor a bit uneasy, but when Dr Naskar invites his old friend along
with his whole family to his care home, the good-natured professor can’t refuse. After all, what better
way could there be for his ‘nephews’ to fulfil their dream? It is agreed that they will move out of the
hotel into Dr Naskar’s home in a couple of days’ time.
Detailed Synopsis (scene by scene):
Scene 1 - Tyapa and Modna are two young school dropouts living in a slum. They had grown up as pickpockets,
but had eventually turned around and helped the police catch a gang of smugglers. This had earned
them a lot of awards, and for a while, things were great. But human memory being notoriously short,
even their own families started to abuse and ill-treat them again. The play opens with Modna
lamenting that there’s no hope for them to look forward to a bright future. Tyapa, however, remains
optimistic. He reminds Modna that they have dreams which are yet to be fulfilled, and maybe it’s time
to give it a try to live a better life. Convinced by Tyapa’s enthusiasm, Modna agrees to approach
Professor Jogobondhu Bose, their respected neighbour, with a request that’s very close to their hearts.
In Scene 2, we see the retired professor in his house, chatting with his precocious granddaughter Mili.
All is well until Tyapa and Modna climb up the water pipe and land on his balcony. All hell suddenly
breaks loose but eventually they all calm down, and the professor recognises them as two faces he’d
seen on posters in the neighbourhood. Tyapa and Modna explain that their past may have been
questionable but they’re reformed now, and they’ve come to the professor with a special request.
However, before they can explain, Sadhona, the professor’s old helping hand, returns from the shops
and freaks out seeing two unknown, unkempt young men apparently having a heart-to-heart with her
master. Sadhona is fiercely protective of the professor and his family. She’s a formidable warrior… but
her single weakness is extreme ticklishness! Tyapa and Modna play a strategic game to break down
Sadhona’s defence soon, and explain that they’ve no evil designs. One of their dreams is to visit the
famous lunatic asylum at Ranchi, so could the professor - who goes on holidays frequently - perhaps
take them along? The idealistic professor is amused first, and then moved when he hears that the two
young men have never had a proper train ride. He will take them, he says, but on one condition. They
must go as his nephews, not as ‘servants’ or subordinates of any sort. They will call him ‘uncle,’ and
will be treated as part of the family. Sadhona is extremely suspicious still, but Tyapa and Modna are
moved by the generosity of the Professor and resolve to justify his trust in them.
After the Interval, Scene 5 takes us back to Dr Naskar’s Care Home. The professor and his family have
been staying with Dr Naskar for the last few days. Tyapa and Modna’s dream has come true - but it
isn’t quite what they had expected. The atmosphere at the care home is oppressive, the two ‘guards’
look more like goons, and the sweet-talking doctor has been observed walking stealthily into a room
that has been declared as ‘off limits.’ Most importantly, Tyapa and Modna find that the so-called ‘loons’
are actually helpless ordinary people. The two young men and the professor are shocked to the core
when they accidentally become witnesses to merciless beating of the helpless men - apparently an
everyday activity at the ‘care home.’ The doctor tries to explain it away by saying that it’s part of their
treatment and if they’re not beaten, they would become violent or harm themselves. The professor
doesn’t know what to believe, but Tyapa and Modna are thoroughly sceptical - especially when they
hear the tortured men insist that the doctor is a criminal. He ‘drills into’ their skulls and gives them
electric shocks, they say, they’ve been lured into this hellhole by the doctor and by ‘that hotel
manager.’ Although they sound hysterical and incoherent, their united pleas to inform the police and
punish the doctor make Tyapa and Modna very suspicious indeed.
In Scene 7, we’re back at Naskar’s Care Home. The three women - #s 14, 8 and 10 - are having another
‘fun’ day, still driving the good-natured matron nuts because today they have switched personas.
Kartik, the assistant guard, is engrossed in a pulp thriller. He scuttles out when the main guard
Babushona calls him; and the women also call it a day soon. Immediately, Professor Jogobondhu and
Sadhona enter, followed by the doctor. We come to know that Tyapa and Modna have ‘disappeared’
since the day of the picnic. They’d gone to the city and have, apparently, not returned. The professor
is extremely worried, not only because he feels responsible for their welfare, but also because he’s
become very fond of them. He wants to inform the police but Sadhona and the doctor both dissuade
him. Sadhona is still convinced that Tyapa and Modna have stolen something and done the bunk, and
the doctor says the police will be very suspicious if the professor tries to report the disappearance of
two youths with a murky past, who are not even related to him by blood. The professor, worried sick
but helpless, agrees to the doctor’s proposal that they should wait longer.
In Scene 8, we discover Tyapa and Modna lying unconscious in the room marked as ‘off-limits.’ When
they come to, we learn that their food had been doped and they had been carried to this room in a
semi-conscious state by the two guards. They soon hear sounds, and sneak up to the partition to see
Dr Naskar clad in his hospital gear, getting ready for operation. The hapless #3, groaning, is dragged in
by the two guards and placed on a makeshift bed while Dr Naskar uses a giant syringe to extract some
fluid from his brain. Tyapa and Modna run back and assume their unconscious pose on the floor. When
the two guards come over to check on them, the two young men spook them out by repeating some
‘secrets’ which they had just overheard. Dr Naskar appears soon, and danger looms as he says it’s time
to operate on Tyapa and Modna. This will cause permanent damage to their brains and turn them into
vegetables. But just as the guards are asked to beat Tyapa and Modna into submission, a young voice
is heard singing very loudly (albeit tunelessly) a line from a famous patriotic song. Tyapa jumps up to
sing the next line, even more tunelessly. This was the pre-arranged signal between Botol the
Braveheart and the twin stars. When Botol had come looking for the young men, he was shooed away;
and, instantly suspicious, he had alerted the Professor. Now the professor runs in followed by Botol,
and announces that the police have also arrived. The guards, terrified, run away. Dr Naskar tries bluster
first, but deflates immediately when he realises that his illegal business of extracting brain serum and
selling it for medical research has been discovered.
The Professor further shares a fact he’s learned from the police that the ‘doctor’ is actually not a doctor
at all. He has been impersonating his brother Sahadeb Naskar. Years ago, when the two brothers were
travelling by train to Ranchi for Sahadeb to take up the lead position at the ‘Care Home,’ he had died
mysteriously. The police suspect that Nakul may have pushed his brother from the train. Nakul,
however, hotly denies this and says that Sahadeb had died of a heart attack and he’d merely taken
advantage of that. In a rare moment of honesty, he shares his bitterness about his family - Sahadeb
had always been the ‘good’ child and had received all attention and accolades, throwing Nakul’s lack
of success into relief. Decades of failure and neglect had made him into what he’d become, claims
Nakul. Tyapa confronts him, however, and says that despite having a hard life, unlike Nakul, Modna
and he hadn’t turned rotten. Sadhona and Mili appear now - Sadhona has had a change of heart about
Tyapa and Modna, and welcomes them into the family. And finally, the ‘numbers’ are freed - they
become human again.
In Scene 6, we find Tyapa and Modna on their way to ‘Hotel Bewti’ to do some sleuthing. They’ve
refused to go on a picnic with the others and have sneaked out. Modna warns Tyapa to be cautious,
especially about the cook Poti, towards whom Tyapa has already displayed some softness. Tyapa
assures his young friend that he may be a softie underneath, but he can tell the good apple from the
rotten. At Hotel Bewti, we find Poti and the manager Ponchanon arguing. Poti wants a bigger cut from
their mysterious extra income and Ponchanon keeps refusing. Seeing Tyapa and Modna, they become
apprehensive. Tyapa plays up to Poti, and soon she lets slip a careless comment about the ‘special care’
job she does to earn extra money. Modna has also found out from Botol that in the past, a steady
stream of hotel guests has disappeared without leaving a trace. Tyapa and Modna are beginning to
put the pieces of the jigsaw together, and Modna commissions Botol’s services as their assistant on
the ground. He whispers a code into Botol’s ear, to be used in an emergency.
Wonderful performance
@@soroshigoswami6833 Thank you!