Chokher Bali
by Rabindranath Tagore
Adapted for the stage by Partha Chatterjee
Directed by Tannistha Mukherjee
Apr 26-28
City Lights Theater
529 S. 2nd Street, San Jose, CA 95112
Chokher Bali¹ is the story of Binodini, a young, educated widow who enters the lives of a newly married couple, Mahendranath and Ashalata, and Mahendranath's childhood friend, Bihari.
Set in Bengal at the turn of the 20th century, Chokher Bali is a moving story of love and loss in a time when widows had the lowest status in a patriarchal society.
Chokher Bali, the novel, was written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1903 and is a classic of Bengali literature. It was adapted for the stage by Partha Chatterjee.
Chokher Bali has also been made into a Netflix limited series starring Radhika Apte and a movie starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Binodini.
English | 120 mins | Ages 12+
1) Chokher Bali, in Bengali, literally means “a grain of sand in the eye”
Cast
Director
Tannistha Mukherjee
Tannistha is a director, actor and a dancer. This is her second directorial outing with BADCo after Adhe Adhure. Previously, with BADCo, she has been in the casts of Name, Place, Animal, Thing, Divided By (lead), Our Stories and The Cherry Orchard. Some of her other prominent roles in the Bay Area include Draupadi in Mahabharat, Nazneen in the Indian adaptation of Arsenic and Old Lace and Tara in Tanika Gupta’s Waiting Room.