‘Chapal Rani’: An ingenious biography of queer actor Chapal Bhaduri, commercial theatre, and jatra

Many of us in Kolkata first learnt of Chapal Bhaduri through Naveen Kishore’s documentary, Performing the Goddess: The Chapal Bhaduri Story (1999). Of the many hats that Kishore wears, the best-known one today is, perhaps, that of publisher of Seagull Books. So, it is not surprising that he suggested that Sandip Roy write a book on the life and times of the actor Chapal Bhaduri, a jatra artiste who mainly performed as a woman. And so, we have Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal: The Life and Times of a Female Impersonator.

It would be wrong to say that the book is only about Chapal Rani. Roy captures the many facets of Bhaduri’s astonishing life in this biography – the young boy from an illustrious theatre family who becomes a jatra queen, enjoys immense fame but finally has to leave the stage, a person who was probably India’s first openly gay actor, an actor who plays Ma Sitala for countless devotees, and later in life, also becomes a queer icon. Roy skilfully brings together the contradictions, complexities, highs and lows of Bhaduri’s life in a well-researched, eminently readable book.

Born in 1939, Chapal, originally named Bhabesh, then Chapalesh, was one of many siblings. A sister was born several years...

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