Haripada Haribole and Bhul Rasta

“Bhul Rasta”—the play—presents a modern social and political narrative wrapped in the style of storytelling and the tone of a folk-tale.

The revered Badal Sircar felt inspired to write this play after watching the folk theatre form Pandavani. In the play, the kathak (storyteller) begins narrating the tale of a king and queen, because the stories of ordinary people are never written. Nowhere in history do we find the names of common men and women.

The king’s son—the prince—goes into the forest to bring a life-saving medicine for his mother. Ministers, guards, soldiers, nobles—a huge entourage—go with him… yet the prince loses his way in the forest . He cannot find the road back home. In the jungle, he meets a woodcutter boy who gives him food, shows him how to survive, and becomes his friend.

Throughout the play, two roads are spoken of—one is the road where you say…