Chirokumar Sabha loosely translates as “The club of eternal bachelorhood” and is a hilarious laughter-packed romantic musical comedy by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. It remains one of his most appreciated and popular works till today; intricately woven with ingenious plots and sub-plots, fantastic musical scores, endless sequences of witty gags, one-liners and retorts, and sheer, unadulterated fun.

Set somewhere towards the latter half of the 19th century in an affluent Bengali family in Kolkata, Chirokumar Sabha subtly explores multiple social issues in this fun-filled comedy touching on the themes of arranged marriage, widow emancipation, gender equality and the inclusion of women into the more traditionally male-dominated areas of Bengali society.

The influence of some of the great writers of the time – notably Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw – is extremely prominent in this play, albeit enriched by Tagore’s own literary and dramatic style and dressed up effortlessly into a completely Bengali setting.

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