Amongst a plethora of cultural conundrums comes Q’s fantasy adaptation of Tagore’s Tasher Desh. While Tagore’s allegorical drama hoped to propel the cause of revolution and bring forth institutional change, Q’s adaptation has often been referred to as “Tagore on acid”.
The story of a prince in search of the Oracle, who escapes his destiny and lands on a fascist island, is interspersed with the story of a theatre director whose hallucinatory fantasy culminates in the unmaking of a totalitarian regime through a revolution led by women.
In a society that glorifies customary relevance subject to rules and convention, Tasher Desh is a story of the victory of desire over the confines of social control. Told through fantastic surrealism, juxtaposed with stunning imagery, seductive colour schemes and a saturated soundtrack, the story of the lost prince is catapulted into a metaphorical narrative. The legitimacy of desire along with the validation of imagination, which were merely subtle undertones in Tagore’s version, take precedence in Q’s rendition. Sexual liberation keeps the gender debate vigorously alive in the contemporary backdrop of neo-fascism and violence against free thought. Against the backdrop of a volatile nationscape, the evocative image of the narrator stepping out with the entrapped widow holds promise and hope for artistic integrity.
Thus the story of Tasher Desh flows parallel to the life of the creator himself, unrestricted, and irregular. Come indulge your senses in the fantasia that is Tasher Desh on Monday, 7th November, and find out as we talk to Q what he was on when he adapted Tasher Desh!
thus. 
Leave a Reply