Ghetu-Putra Sherebul

He sat there in a yellow sari, carefully applying make-up. Then he gave up his place in front of the green-room mirror for a young girl. Another young man came along, made him sit on a stool and applied kohl to his eyes and next carefully arranged the long tresses of his wig. It was a total transformation - making it almost impossible to decipher that this sari clad, doe-eyed woman in all her finery was actually a man. And it was not just superficial. As soon as the powder and paint was complete, he donned an entirely feminine persona. This was the scene last week in the green room of the auditorium at Bangladesh National Museum.

The actor’s name is Sherebul Islam. For the past 32 years, he has nurtured this feminine side within himself, convincingly playing the prima donna on stage. the happiness and sorrows of the heroines of Bangladesh’s' folk theatre - Roopban, Kajolrekha, the bede (river gypsy) Jotsna, or Senoka, the wife of the merchant Chand - have all become his own. His sorrow brings tears to the eyes of his adoring audiences in Kushtia, Meherpur, Jhenaidah, Magura, and Jessore; and in turn his joyful dance arouses unending rounds of applause and appreciation. The crowds of spectators of folk theatre totally adore these heroines brought alive by him. While women yearn to be ‘her’, men, too, covet a loving glance from ‘her’.

Sherebul was trained by a group of ‘ghetu’ performers, a folk theatre promulgated in the sixteenth century when a Vaisnava follower of Chaitanya renounced domestic ties and began to spend his days in the guise of Radha separated from Krishna.

Surprisingly, there hasn’t been a single performer in fourteen generations of Sherebul’s family! There were strict instructions from his father, a hard-working farmer, that no such frivolity should enter his household.

While still a youth, the head of a band of performers detected talent in him and put him on stage as a female character. Since then the stage has been Sherebul’s first love. Though many talented actresses now act in folk theatre, Sherebul’s ‘demand’ has not diminished an iota. Rejaul Huq Sholok, an award-winning artiste of the district, convincingly states about his protégé, ‘There is no one like Sherebul who can perform the dance of the chukri (young girl)’. He is quick to add, ‘There is a popular demand for him’. He is well known as ‘Nosimon Sherebul’, after the popular folk-heroine of that name. As a result of his popularity, Sherebul performs for several bands.

But, performance is not the main profession of this ‘ghetu-putra’, literally the boy who performs ‘ghetu’. He is an auto-rickshaw driver. Sherebul resides in Boholbari union of Kushtia district. His family consists of his loving wife and only son.

That evening, as Sherebul was preparing to play the role of Chand’s wife Senoka, I probed, ‘Why did you learn this dance?’ Almost immersed in his make-belief role, he quietly replied, ‘It was the romance which ensnared me. Initially the audience used to snigger and tease. Then I learnt to captivate them. Now they all want me’.

When I asked, ‘How do you cry like a woman?’, Sherebul related the process of drawing out the pathos. ‘When our mothers and sisters wail and weep, say for instance, at the death of dear ones, I try to consciously empathise. That empathy remains within me. But, don’t be surprised, I don’t just dance and sing in jhumur jatras, lyrical dance dramas, I play the man too, at times. People always ask me, ‘what compels you to do all this?’ I reply, ‘It’s something I’ve put a lot of effort to learn, and the audiences don’t let go of me. Let’s see how long I can carry on’.

Sherebul has been married for 20 years, his son is in the eighth grade. The boy isn’t interested in ‘ghetu’. Sherebul , of course, dearly wants others to carry on this tradition of his. He is convinced that it isn’t possible for women to portray all female roles effectively. ‘A man can observe a woman keenly and gain insights. That is why, at times, men can more convincingly play women’s roles. Also, the hard life of folk-theatre performers makes it difficult for women to continue for long.’

Sherebul also has another rationale. For him, women playing women’s roles is a contemporary form of drama, while the chukri performances have been a genre of folk-theatre for centuries. It is our heritage.