Both plays are choreographed and directed by Madhumita Chakraborty and Tony Chakraborty; music composed and directed by Santanu Bhattacharya; key performances by Indrani Mukerjea, Manini De, Madhumita Chakraborty, Aakriti Sharma, Subrat Panda, Nilesh Khandalkar, Sunil Bhuvad, Neil Munj, Srijita Mandal, and an ensemble of dancers from Nritya Vishakha.
Presenting two distinct but thematically linked works at one national festival underlined IME’s growing repertory ambitions. Chitrangada, which is Mukerjea’s recent reinterpretation of Tagore’s warrior princess, returned to the stage with a tighter dramatic economy, while Nayika Bhoomika, the larger dance-theatre evening that braids four Tagore texts (Chokher Bali, Chandalika, Kabuliwala and Maan Bhanjon), was staged the following evening and again met with sustained attention. Both productions were staged to packed and engaged audiences at PVLF, signalling a confident national reception for IME’s work.
At the centre of both nights was Mukerjea, whose performance arc, from last year’s Chitrangada to this weekend’s dual run, is striking. The success of both shows also reinforces IME’s trajectory from a single-production house into a company cultivating repeatable, national-scale work.
“Taking Chitrangada and Nayika Bhoomika to PVLF felt like the right next step for us, not because we wanted a bigger stage, but because these works ask for a different kind of listening. Seeing two nights of attentive audiences, thoughtful questions and real engagement made the whole company feel seen. This is what theatre should do: travel a little, listen a lot, and leave people with something that keeps working on them,” said Mukerjea.
IME’s ensemble strength was also on view. Subrat Panda once again provided the kind of steady, detail-oriented work that anchors larger productions; his presence made several of the subtler emotional turns feel earned. Manini De’s Sutradhar work (noted for impeccable timing and lip-sync control) and Aakriti Sharma’s focused contributions in Nayika Bhoomika were singled out in audience feedback: Sharma’s moments of clarity and grounded demeanour helped preserve narrative focus when movement risked abstraction. The collective performances reinforced the sense that IME is building a dependable company around its producer-performer core.
PVLF, curated by Frontlist Media, is known for staging literary discussion alongside cultural performances and author events; this year’s edition brought together publishing voices, debut authors and performance work, making it an appropriate platform to present Tagore-derived theatre to a national audience. The festival’s programming intent, to blend books, ideas and cultural moments, amplified the reach of both plays and introduced IME’s work to new audiences and critics.
“We were delighted to host Indrani Mukerjea Enterprise at PVLF this year,” said Kapil Gupta, Director and Founder of PVLF, Frontlist Media, and Solh Wellness. “Presenting performance alongside the written word is central to PVLF’s mission, and these two evenings brought Tagore into fresh conversation with contemporary audiences. Such work, which is careful, ambitious, and rooted in literary imagination, is exactly what our festival aims to showcase.”
What does this signal for IME
Two nights at a national festival, each presenting a different approach to Tagore’s work, suggest that IME is no longer a city-bound project. The company’s willingness to rework its earlier productions, to invest in a stable ensemble, and to place literary theatre in public conversation points to a clear plan: building a repertory that can tour, engage diverse audiences and sustain critical attention.
The PVLF run is an early but meaningful marker that IME’s national ambitions are viable.
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