''Nemesis'' ( bn, নেমেসিস) is a play written by

Natyaguru Nurul Momen (25 November 1908 – 16 February 1990) was a Bangladeshi playwright, educator, director, broadcast personality, academician, satirist, essayist, translator and poet.Bangla Natyashahitter Itihash, the most authoritative reference boo ...

Nurul Momen Nurul Momen (25 November 1908 – 16 February 1990) was a Bangladeshi playwright, educator, director, broadcast personality, academician, satirist, essayist, translator and poet.Bangla Natyashahitter Itihash, the most authoritative reference boo ...

, considered one of the most successful experimental plays in

Bengali theatre Bengali theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in the Bengali language. Bengali theatre is produced mainly in West Bengal, and in Bangladesh. The term may also refer to some Hindi theatres which are accepted by the Bengali people. Ben ...

. It is a play with only one character, written in 1944 and published in the acclaimed literary journal "Shonibarer Chithi" in 1945 & as a book in 1948. ''Nemesis'', a tragedy, set a milestone in the history of Bengali literature because of its unique feature and modern plot. National professor of Bangladesh

Kabir Chowdhury Kabir Chowdhury (9 February 1923 – 13 December 2011) was a Bangladeshi academic, essayist, materialist, translator, cultural worker and civil society activist. Early life and education Chowdhury was born in Brahmanbaria of the then Tipperah d ...

explains, “Nemesis is his (Nurul Momen's) most famous work. It is an experimental drama where through dialogues the main and only character remembers his past. It shows how a promising personality falls prey to greed and loses his morality. Though it is a play based on one actor, the scope of the plot is wide and a number of other characters come in through the main character's reminiscences.” It was also the first experimental Bengali play, as ''Nemesis'' contains only one character. This experiment was done earlier than Nurul Momen only by

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

and

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

in the entire history of world theater. In fact, the two plays ''Rupantor'' and ''Nemesis'' by Nurul Momen, ushered in the modernism of theatre of

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

, subsequently called

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

and finally becoming the independent

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Before ''Nemesis'' only a few playwrights had attempted a one-character play, but none had the full form of a play continuing for one and a half hours without break. Nurul Momen did not only adorn the play with witty dialogues, but also made the character recite poems and even sing. His conversations over the phone, with neighbours, with his conscience and lastly with his murderer is drawn in such an ingenious way that the absence of these characters on the stage is never felt. Not for once the audience can get bored because of the unpredictable turn of the events cleverly knitted in the plot. Written against the backdrop of Bengal famine of the early 1940s, ''Nemesis'' depicts the moral predicaments of a middle-class schoolteacher Surojit Nandi. Surojit married Sulota, daughter of the dishonest, affluent Nripen Bose. Nripen gives Surojit an ultimatum that if he urojitcan not earn five hundred thousand Taka within three months, he won't accept the latter's marriage to his daughter. Surojit is left with no other option but to undertake several unethical actions. Eventually he wants to break free from the wrong path but he is denied by ''Nemesis'', the Greek goddess of retribution and vengeance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemesis Bengali-language plays Bangladeshi drama 1948 plays Theatre in Bangladesh Bangladeshi plays

See also

References