In the early eighties, a phrase entered the patois of Bengali streetspeak and immediately established itself as a most serviceable term of abuse. The words 'looje character', habitually used by the rapacious orchard-grabber Nakori in Manoj Mitra's play Sajano Bagan, became an instant hit with young and old alike. The film version of Mitra's play-Banchharamer Bagan-was then running to packed houses, with the playwright himself playing the role of the eponymous old codger.

The central protagonist of this play is an old man, Banchharam Kapali, passionately attached to his orchard, unwilling to die, staunchly resisting the threats and blandishments of Nakori, the zamindar of the village. Nakori is egged on from the sidelines by the hysterical ghost of father Chakori, who also performs some sort of choric function in the play. Both the dead father and the living son are obsessed with grabbing Banchharam's plot of land, by hook or by crook. This is a familiar enough theme in Bengali literature, usually couched in the idiom of late nineteenth century realism. But Mitra's treatment rejects realistic conventions in favour of what may provisionally be called theatrical magic realism. The dominant mode is that of slapstick, often verging on the absurd. The dividing line between laughter and violence is uncomfortably thin.

Much of the play's appeal stems from such zestful and energetic passages. Mitra himself would probably cavil at being described as a laugh-a-minute playwright but it is also true that without laughter as a vehicle, the play would probably fall flat on its face. Mitra talks about the people of his village in erstwhile East Bengal, who 'never failed to laugh even at their own anguish, despair or misery-not because they tried to appear smart, but because they were really very simple.' Banchharam purports to be the prototype of such a man, though he is often capable of considerable low cunning. Shades of Jaroslav Hlasek's Schweik perhaps, another long-running presence on the Bengali stage.