Jamai barika. A Comedy. By Dinabandhu Mittra. Calcutta: New Sanskrit Press. Sambat, 1929.



We fear that this play will not add much to the reputation of Babu Dinabandhu; for some reason we think that it would have been better if he had never written it. It has a poor plot, if plot it can be called at all. Abhayakumar, who is the son-in-law of Bijayaballabha, is at first slighted by his wife; he leaves his country and takes refuge at Brindavana, where he is united with his consort in a very strange manner. Padmalochan, unable to brook any longer the freedoms (by way way of corporal punishment) which two wives took with him, betakes himself to Brindavana also and lives there with Abhayakyumar, until at last he is reconciled to his wives by their repentance. The play sets forth in an unfavourable light the ill-breeding of many of the Bengali ladies, but we can not help thinking that it is an exaggerated picture; and in any case the task is an ungracious one. The coarse ribaldries in which the jamais (sons-in-law) indulge, are all repulsive to educated ears. The Bayes-like grandiloquence of Nivaran when he makes a prose recitation of the Ramayana is amusing; but this too is not free from vulgarisms which soil the work. In spite of these and other faults in the conduct of the drama, Babu Dinabandhu has given ample proof of his powers. The characters are very well discriminated; and considering merely as a satire, the book is well written. The biting sarcasm on Bhotaram Nhat, who is represented as a reviewer, scarcely does the author any credit. We repeat, the work before us is unworthy of the author of the "Navina Tapasvini" and "Lilavati".


Goraya Galad. By Rabindra Nath Tagore. Printed at Adi Brahmo Samaj Press, Calcutta, 1929. B.E.



Is a farce or rather a farcical comedy, the evident object of which is to ridicule certain frivolities and vagaries of a class of Bengalee youths, chief among which are a spirit of vain sentimentalism, and a mock Multhusianism, softened by a touch of dreamy romance, and so superficial in its character as to give under the weight of the least pressure or the semblance of pressure from friends or relatives, and whenever temporarily persistent, subsisting only on a feeling of crossed love or on a fanciful longing for union with girls for whom a special liking has been clandestinely conceived. Goraya Galad is a capital caricature of this strange type of lackadaisical and frivolous young Bengalees, of whom we are afraid, there are not a few. The farce is brimful of pleasant wit and humour, and written in a style having a special charm of its own. The characters are drawn from real life. The production bears the marks of that originality, freshness and power which so prominently distinguish all other performances of Baboo Rabindra Nath and give them an individuality of their own.