Mime Time with Partha!

Partha Pratim Majumder

Partha Pratim Majumder who was recently awarded the highest honour of Bangladesh “Ekushe Padak 2010” is our newsmaker this week! Majumder, world famous mime artist talks to The Sip of Life moderator, Amit Roy, in a telephonic interview from Paris where he is based with his family.

Partha Pratim Majumder was conferred the “Master of Mime” Award by the only mime academy of India “Jogesh Mime Academy” in 1987. The Journalist Association of Malaysia honoured him with “Master of the World” in the same year. Partha received the highest European honour for theatre named “Moliere Award” in 2009. He also received the Munier Chowdhury Award, the highest honour for theatre (Non Governmental) in 2009. And last but not the least he bagged the highest cultural honour of France in 2011.

He is not just a mime artist but has also acted as model in the advertising campaigns for world famous companies like Western Union, Nike, IBM, Mc Donald’s, and Thompson etc. Partha along with his family is now based in Paris and works regularly in French films, theatre and publicity.

Talking to The Sip of Life, Majumder, born in an arty family of Pabna, Bangladesh on January 18, 1954, reminisces the nostalgic days of his childhood. “Even as a child whatever I saw I would imitate it and I must have been just 10 years old”, he says, adding that it was in 1966 when he had gone to live with his paternal aunt in Chandernagore, 30 kilometers from Kolkata, he saw his aunt’s neighbourer Jogesh Dutta an artiste who seemed to be doing a skit without using any words. “I first thought he was mentally unstable, but later realised he was a self-taught mime artiste”, he says, attributing it to Dutta for being his inspiration.

He had started giving performances on Bangladesh television when he was about 21 years old. In 1979, he was offered to do his first solo performance by the Shilpakala Academy in Bangladesh.

Picture Courtesy:Partha Pratim Majumder

“I had always heard of Marcel Marceau as a child as someone who would say everything without words but never knew that one day I would be working with him”, says Majumder. Greatest mime maestro Marcel Marceau is thought to be the father of French mime, with whom Majumder worked for over 18 hours a day from 1982 to 1985. The name of Marcel Marceau has become synonymous with pantomime, the unique form of art. After spending three years with his idol Marceau, he staged solo performances in England, Belgium, Germany, Italy Spain, and the USA. His solo performances were telecast by French, Canadian, USA TV channels and BBC.

It was in 1975 that he started his own troupe till 1981 when he came to Paris. “I worked here with Etienne, the founder of modern mime. “I always salute people of my country who supported me, even when government help was not there.” In 1990, Partha opened his own mime school in Bretange, France.

When asked about the theme of his performances, Majumder explains, “I started with problems of humans like anything from electricity to transport to international issues. One of my best eye-opener performances was on child abuse in which 30 artistes had performed for ‘Nightmare’, the name of the performance. I had event staged a show on effect of internet on children in 2010 and in Germany, ‘Green Party’ on tree felling.

Partha Pratim Majumder is undoubtedly the forerunner of mime in Bangladesh and has been even working for films and telefilms. His wife Jayashree Majumder is a classical singer and a Professor of a Paris based music school “Soleil d’or.” Their only son Nicolas Supratim Majumder is a Sound Engineer while the artistes’ only daughter Marie Doel Majumder has learnt ballet.

It was recently in May that a biographical documentary, ‘Poet of Silence’, on mime maestro Partha was launched in the auditorium of Alliance Francaise de Dhaka. The 28 minute film highlights remarkable moments from Majumder’s life.