Letters unravel what other forms of writing cannot. They are windows into our inner lives, revealing our fears, intimacies and vulnerabilities. Keeping with this sentiment, The Bose Legacy, a cine-theatrical experience by the Playpen Performing Arts Trust, brings to us letters of Subhas Chandra Bose from prisons of Madras and Calcutta, along with those written by his brother Sarat Chandra Bose, addressed to the latter’s son, Amiya Nath Bose. These have been sourced from Amiya’s daughter, Madhuri Bose’s compilation in her book, The Bose Brothers and the Indian Independence, and are dated between 1930 and ’55.  

Speaking of how correspondence turned to dialogue, Nikhil Katara, who wrote the cine-play with Himali Kothari, tells us, “Initially, we had put these together as a performed reading, but slowly, it started taking the shape of a play.” While the play was staged at several venues, during the pandemic, the team found it difficult to take it forward. They, therefore, decided to turn it into a cinematic experience rather than a theatrical one. “In 2020, we shot the performance as a cine-play, using all the tools and devices that a film uses. The film was then used as an opening show in Kolkata to commemorate.