My mind goes back to the early 1980s when Saonli played the role of Virginia, first child of Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, in Galileor Jiban (Life of Galileo), Bengali adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo (Leben des Galile in original German) under Kolkata Natya Mancha (Calcutta Repertory Theatre), directed by Berliner Ensemble-famed Fritz Bennewitz. In the title role was her father, Sombhu Mitra, the doyen in the post-independence Indian theatre. The father-daughter duo, to many of us, created the brightest sequences in the show intermittently. Mitra’s acting reflecting the wounded psyche of interned-at-home Galileo, torn between a scientist social and a traumatic scientist asocial in the beginning decades of 17th Century, catapulted to a high with his sing-song modulation. Virginia whose fiancée Ludovico, Galileo’s student, left her due to her father’s anger was portrayed marvelously by Saonli, particular in the last scene dumbly while tragedienne’s pathos was reflected in the rupture and vibration of the facial muscles as if about to burst into tears.

The CRT which was victim of infant mortality made theatre-lovers witnesses to the most star-studded theatrical venture in Indian dramatic history attracted critics to write on the historic event – Galileor Jiban.. Rudraprasad Sengupta, one of the living legends in Bengali stage, who was in the dramatis personae in Galilee Jiban, recalled how Saonli was picked up for the role. ‘Three were under consideration, Chandra Dastidar, Swatilekha Sengupta (later married to Rudraprasad) and Saonli. The other two gladly agreed to the choice of Saonli and she proved her mettle. Her talent is beyond question. But for her frequent withdrawal from the stage, Bengali theatre was deprived of several performances setting pace.”

Debashis Majumder, eminent playwright and drama director who earned praised from Mitra among other stalwarts agreed with Rudra-da’s last words – ‘withdrawal tendency’. Majumder recalled that Saonli began her theatrical life at the age of three as the daughter of Rahim (Sombhu Mitra) and Phuljan (Tripti Mitra, Saonli’s mother in real life and another legendary artiste in Bengali theatre) in Chhenra Tar (broken wire), a great play, written by Tulsi Lahiri. Debashis remembered her unique performance in the role of Surangama in Rabindranath Tagore’s Raja (King of The Dark Chamber) in which her mother, Tripti Mitra, one of finest-ever actresess in Bengali stage, acted as Sudarshana, the main female role/ Her first path-breaking role was as Amal in Dakghar (Post Master), a classic play of Tagore, Debashis remembered.

But Saonli’s acme was in Nathabati Anathbath where she played the role of Draupadi – the single character in the drama. She acted as movingly as she sang making the audience speechless in the 80-minute performance The breath-taking and spell-binding feat held the audience in rapt attention with hypnotic play readings without budging from a seat and without costume. Draupadi was a symbol of feminist protest against ultra-patriarchal society. She was inspired by Iravati Karve’s Yuganta (1968) where India’s first female anthropologist raised “difficult and complicated” legal and moral issues when the Kaurava men started pulling off her sari. Karve, opposing’s version of Vyasa’s The Mahabharata which offers a deafening silence, wrote that as each sari was pulled off another appeared in its place and kept the discussion on. In Nathabati Anathbath, Draupadi transcends the domestic sphere and contests the “rights of a master over a slave and a slave over his wife.” There Draupadi praises only Bhima of her five husbands.

Unforgettable was her acting in a side role on Bangabala in Ritwik Ghatak’s avant garde film Jukti Takko aar Gappo (1974), the only film in which Ghatak acted. Why she was almost absent n film industry remains a mystery despite her proven talent in celluloid.

She was a recipient of Ananda Purashkar in 1991 for the biography of Sombhu Mitra, Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2003 and the Ibsen Centennial Commemoration Award by the Government of Norway in 2006. But she remained tendentiously ostracized during the 34-year Left Front rule, under the hegemony of Communist Party of India(Marxist). This is a calumny belittling the Left cultural-literary image. She received Padma Shri in 2009, and Banga Bibhusan in 2012, The Trinamool Congress regime honoured her, made Saonli the president of Bangla Academy. She did lot of work as president. (IPA Service)