The Caged

Emperor
Written By : Subhasish Guha
Screenplay : Subhasish Guha

Registration Number
042487-7_Subhasish Guha
The Caged Emperor
Show At a Glance
A failed author, a bohemian theatre artist who is partially reincarnated
discovers he is carrying the legacy of the Noble laureate Rabindranath
Tagore . Though his stories, poems are strongly pertinent, it is not
working out in the present time. A story starts from Udichi,
Shantiniketan and winds up at Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad, speaks about
a writer’s journey who is in search of his Jahanara, Mistress of the
Throne. “The Caged Emperor” is a tale about an alternate reality
where Tagore is not famous anymore, a bombed family man, an
intellectual & spiritual soul speaks about Religious war, Anti-
Sentiment, Intolerance and Humanity.
The Caged Emperor
Setting
It captures the final days of Rabindranath Tagore from 1939 to 1941. It
talks about his beloved & only living son Rathindranath Tagore who
came back from Germany to take over the responsibility of
Viswabharati. It also tracks the life of Partha, born in Assam and
schooled at Kalimpong. An enormously talented writer, actor, student
of National School of Drama chose to stay close to the roots. After the
demise of his wife and only beloved son, he chose to be a part of
“Valmiki” a bohemian theatre group which travels across Indian fairs.
The Caged Emperor
Concept Note
Partha, a man of 48, part of a Bohemian Theatre group, Balmiki, meets
a Film Student, Ujjaini during Kumbh. Partha was convent-educated ,
wrote a few English Novels which did not work. But surprisingly the
stories seemed to be relevant and influenced Ujjaini deeply. She found
some uncanny similarity of his stories and his life with Tagore's
Fictions. A strange tale of a person who knows he is carrying a legacy
of Tagore, however, could just observe the gigantic creation behind
the cage, similar to Shah Jahan viewed Tajmahal
The Caged Emperor
Milieu
The story talks about a lot of socio-political issues. It makes a
alternate reality for the best creator of India and sees how his accounts
are getting influenced. From the expansionism of the British to Caste,
Religious War, Intolerance, it calls attention to how shallow we have
progressed toward becoming regarding getting mankind.
The Caged Emperor
Detailed Synopsis -1
“The Caged Emperor” is a story about a partially reincarnated person whose real-life
experiences were very similar to his previous life’s fictional stories. Partha, the
protagonist of the story born in an Assamese family and completed his study in
Kalimpong. He used to get some visuals of his past life in his dreams quite often.
Surprisingly these were not destructive, rather it was happy and constructive, mostly
about a father, son discussion in a European country. Partha lost his parents at a very
early age and later raised by her aunt. His inclination towards English and French
literature brought him to Kolkata to complete his study and also to connect the dots
between his previous life as the characters used to talk in Bengali. Though he was
carrying a very little memory of his previous life, he could identify himself when he
saw an old picture of Rathindranath Tagore son of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore
and his wife who called him “Babamoshai”.
The Caged Emperor
Detailed Synopsis -2
Ujjaini, another pivotal character of this story went to Allahabad to shoot a
documentary on the Kumbha. She met Partha, performing with a Bohemian Theatre
group called Valmiki. Valmiki was an ensemble mix of people all round from India,
staging Mahabharata, Ramayana, and other ancient stories. Ujjaini was really
impressed with Partha’s performance and wanted to have a discussion with him.
Things became very interesting when Ujjaini came to know Partha was a writer but his
books never did well in the Indian market. His poems, short stories, novels went
unsold and he literally went bankrupt. Partha’s life was painful, the demise of his wife
made him completely alone. Partha gave his few novels to Ujjaini to read.
Ujjaini started with “A Broken Boat”, a story set on a reputed family in Assam and
based on the life of ‘Sarojini’ whose in-laws wanted to send her back for not
conceiving a child. A tale of sorrow, hope and imperfection touched Ujjaini, final year
student of SRFTI. She was so impressed with the writing that she felt an intellectual
connect with Partha.
The Caged Emperor
Detailed Synopsis -3
She kept going to their show and capture their outstanding performances. Partha shared
another story with her about “The Caged Boy”. This story was different than the previous.
Scripted back in 2009, at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh where Partha was performing with a
bunch of NSD students. The story was about conjoined twins, a rare scene in rural India.
His name was Bhola. Bhola’ s parents abandoned him considering him a sign of Black
Magic. He was sold to a circus team, who used him in a similar way to scare the viewers.
Bhola, a 12-year-old intelligent, sweet, free-spirited soul was put into behind the cages by
the ringmaster as he often tried to run away. Bhola requested the protagonist to take his
letter to his favorite god as he was unaware about his religion. Bhola passed away the next
morning and the crew buried him in the nearby ground saying he was a son of a Muslim
peasant. The writer opened the letter and found it was written to the character he loved in
the play ‘Krishna’. Partha was in enormous pain losing a childlike Bhola and also
devastated by the social bindings that we are not allowed to choose our ‘God’.
Ujjaini was speechless by the impact the story and she decided to change the subject of her
documentary on Partha’s life and Stories. But Partha’s stories and life experiences reminded
him of some of the Rabindranath Tagore’s eternal creation “Noukadubi” and “Dakghowr”.
She was in two minds whether Partha had written these stories with his experiences or
somehow inspired by Tagore’s write-ups.
The Caged Emperor
Detailed Synopsis -4
Ujjaini’s doubts got cleared when she read Partha’s another novel “The Muddy
Water”. A small deaf and dumb kid lost her parents in a terrifying flood in Bengal
during Autumn. The village was having a grand Durga Puja, organized by the
Zamindar family. Due to hallucination, she found her mother in the idol. After Visarjan
the girl found dead hugging the drenched muddy idol beside the Ganges. A melancholy
story of reawakening after immerse. A terrific interpretation of spiritual existence in a
mudded idol.
Ujjaini went to tell Partha about the fact that his real-life experiences were very similar
to Rabindranath Tagore’s fictions. But she found the theatre group left the place after
having a fight with the local political party who demanded money to perform by the
river. The crew was badly injured, few admitted in hospitals. By that time Ujjaini was
obsessed about Partha and Valmiki who had opened a different perspective in her life.
She took a bike and traveled 150km in search of the caravan. She found the truck in a
remote village in UP. She went ahead to the truck to return the books to Partha. She
did not find him in his block but found a diary where he mentioned about his partial
reincarnation. He knew, he was carrying the memory of the “Noble Laureate” but he
did not tell anyone. He never wanted to read any of Tagore’s creation as he did not
want to repeat himself. By the destiny, Tagore’s fiction was becoming a part of Partha’s
life which he had penned down.
The Caged Emperor
Detailed Synopsis -5
Ujjaini also understood the fact that, we, the readers stopped accepting stories which
are rooted, talked about complex human emotion. A land of literature became a slave of
glitter, fantasy, and superhero. We could only appreciate the stories about Love, Sex
and Betrayal.
This questions the reality and the surroundings, questions, will Tagore be equally
successful if he was born in the twenty-first century. Will his vision could be accepted
by the current generation. Ujjaini had lots and lots of questions in her mind and respect
for a saint who effortlessly trying to make a mark with his stories. When she came out
of the truck, she found Partha was teaching a few small kids under a big Banyan tree.
As always his mind was up and fearless, the voice was loud and clear, instead of having
plaster in his right hand he was trying his best to write Tagore’s “Where the mind is
without fear”. Ujjaini could not stop herself to record the precious moment while she
was uttering another sensational poem by Tagore “Gahana Kusumo Kunja majhe”.
This story tried to describe the socio-political condition of India, talked about
secularism, platonic love which had been the core strength of Tagore’s writing. It also
touched the spirituality, backbone of every song and poem of Rabindranath’s creation.
Moreover, it spoke about a saint who was fearless, honest and loud against social
problems. An unrevealed reincarnation of the greatest writer of the world was equally
melancholy like his previous life, but strangely their visions are same.
The Caged Emperor

Language: Hindi
No. of Episodes: 8
Duration per Episodes: 40-45 minutes
Genre: Drama
Production House Name:
Story: Subhasish Guha
Screenplay: Subhasish Guha & Nishchye Kumar
The Caged Emperor
Character Sketch:
Partha Upadhyay
Partha the protagonist of the story is an enormous talent. He is a great author and writes
stories and plays. He has a strong voice against the social issues. He seeks for an
intellectual partner. He has a profound knowledge in German and French literature
along with Indian literature of all kinds. He reads almost everything and his dream to
create a play on “Nur Jahan” the daughter and wife of the Mughal Emperor Shah
Jahan. He decided to write a play based on a famous book named “Mistress of the
Throne” by Ruchir Gupta. The authority did not allow to stage a play based on Mughal
emperor during Kumbha and they obstructed. Partha fights for his “Freedom of
Expression” , his strong ability to reach to people and inspire to protest against the
intolerance. On the other hand he discovered during his college days that his partially
reincarnated memories are of Rabindranath Tagore. He never read any of his novels as
he did not want to repeat himself.
The Caged Emperor
Character Sketch:
Ujjaini Mitra
A student of SRFTI, Kolkata who went to Kumbha to create a documentary. A
voracious reader, one of the best in Film Making discovers Partha playing a character
of Mahabharata in his Theatre group. An immediate intellectual connects with the
Partha gave her a new direction to think. The book Partha gave him to read were
severely similar to Tagore’s fictions but also morally very different. Ujjaini discovers
that Partha writes down his life’s story through his books. While she discovers Tagore
in an alternate reality, she also wants to create a documentary on him. Another pivotal
character who narrates the story
The Caged Emperor
Character Sketch:
Ujjaini Mitra
A student of SRFTI, Kolkata who went to Kumbha to create a documentary. A
voracious reader, one of the best in Film Making discovers Partha playing a character
of Mahabharata in his Theatre group. An immediate intellectual connects with the
Partha gave her a new direction to think. The book Partha gave him to read were
severely similar to Tagore’s fictions but also morally very different. Ujjaini discovers
that Partha writes down his life’s story through his books. While she discovers Tagore
in an alternate reality, she also wants to create a documentary on him. Another pivotal
character who narrates the story