Ek Peyala Coffee, a crime thriller by playwright and actor Tarun Roy, under the pseudonym, Dhanjay Bairagi, was a popular theatre play on Bengali stages more than three decades ago.
In March 2023, the idea to revive the popular crime thriller came to the mind of Sujit Chandra Bandyopadhyay, a retired banker and avid lover of Bengali stage. Utpal Dutta, Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, Sabitabrata Dutta were his hot favourites. Initially, it was thought that all the actors would be the family members who are or were descendents of Sir Gooroodas Banerjee, the first Indian Vice Chancellor of the Calcutta University and judge of the High Court or married to the Bandyopadhyay family. Kheyapa Natyo Premi was hence set up to stage the drama. The drama was directed by Debkumar Ghosh, who played the role of Biru Bose. The Chowdhury House, on 14 September, staged the play. Despite inclement weather, the hall was nearly full and the acting of all the participants had enthralled the audience. The acting ability of the participants took the drama to a different height.
Apart from the director, Debkumar Ghosh, the drama was acted by Srijan Bhattacharya as Nikunja, Nilotpal Mukherjee as Nepal and Amitabha Bhattacharya as Inspector Ghosh. Notably, the other members are or were either members of the Banerjee family or married into the family.
The story of the crime thriller revolves around Arun Gupta (played by Ramesh Chandra Bandyopadhyay), a well known director, who took his team to a site for the shooting of a film. However, because of bad weather, the shooting got deferred. Gupta, a disciplinarian, was infamous for his caustic tongue among the team and could not withstand the misdemeanour of the team members.
He refused to give money to Prasad (played by Anjan Chakraborty), which he needed for his sister’s treatment, as Gupta did not approve the courtship between the heroine, Chitra (played by Anindita Chowdhury) and the hero Alok Kumar (played by Supriyo Bandyopadhyay). Therefore, both decided to quit Gupta’s company and join some other firm. Gupta became so angry that he forced Chitra to sign a contract which stopped her from joining any other firm before five years.
Gupta was visibly disturbed when suddenly Parulbala (played by Rajrupa Chakraborty), a popular actress, appeared on the scene, who, over a period of time, lost her mental balance. Gupta, therefore, looked after Biru Bose (played by Debkuamr Ghosh), Parul’s husband and took her away. Bose was the scriptwriter of the films directed by Gupta. She was being looked after by Gupta, who further appointed Nikunja to look after her. Gupta became furious when Parul came out of her residence and threatened Nikunja to sack him on charges of dereliction of duty.
Monjori (played by Srimoyee Chakraborty), an actress, had managed to get a letter that showed that Alok Kumar and Chitra had secretly planned to leave the company.
Brojen Roy (played by Sujit Chandra Bandopadhyay), the music director, was a sober man. He was a father figure to Chitra and went out of his way to help Chitra. Whenever the crew members, including the actors, faced any trouble with Gupta, they approached Roy for a solution. Gupta had a wordy duel with Alok Kumar and Montu (played by Prodipta Bandyopadhyay), one of the directors of the firm.
Gupta had the habit of taking a cup of coffee every evening. Chitra brought the coffee, he took it and immediately he fell on the table and died instantly.
Now, police Inspector Ghosh (played by Amitava Bhattacharya) appears on the scene and starts his investigation. He interrogated everyone. Meanwhile, many members of the crew saw Gupta’s ghost wearing his favourite dressing gown. Brojen also saw Gupta’s ghost and confessed that he had mixed poison in the cup of coffee. He had two intentions, first, for Gupta’s property and second, the developed infatuation for Chitra over the years. Brojen was hence arrested.
The eldest member of the theatre troupe was 83-years-old, Ramesh Chandra Bandyopadhyay while the youngest member was 21-years-old, Srijan Bhattacharya.
The unique feature of the drama was that everyone had played the role so brilliantly that it seemed as if they were all professional actors. Two senior most members of the team, Ramesh Chandra and his brother, Sujit took part in the jatra organised in connection with Jagatdhatri puja, which is being held at their house. Rajrupa (who played Parulbala in the drama) is Ramesh Chandra’s daughter and is a seasoned actress as well. Anjan Chakraborty’s role as Prasad deserves special mention. His natural acting was appreciated by all.
Debkumar Ghosh’s wonderful direction coupled with unique set design very successfully converted some amateur actors into thorough professional ones irrespective of their age.