Shyamanand Jalan was born in Calcutta in the year 1934. He began acting when he was a schoolboy and took up law as a profession. His first directorial venture came with Ek thi rajkumari or `Once There Was a Princess` in 1953. This was a children`s play written originally in Bengali by Tarun Roy, under whom Jalan gained experience. He worked as secretary for Roy`s Theatre Centre before joining others in 1955 to set up Anamika, which revived serious Hindi theatre in Calcutta. He discovered Mohan Rakesh, staging Ashadh ka ek din i.e. `One Day in Ashadha` in 1960, and later directing the same author`s Lahron ke raj bans i.e. `Swans of the Waves` in 1967 and Adhe-adhure in 1970. He placed Chhapte chhapte i.e. `Going to Print` in 1963, from Stop Press by Rumanian author Mihail Sebastian in arena format, and stylized Gyandev Agnihotri`s Shuturmurg i.e. `Ostrich` in 1967 and Vijay Tendulkar`s Panchhi aise ate hain i.e. `That`s How Birds Come` in 1971, from Ashipakhareyeti. His productions of Badal Sircar`s Evam Indrajit in 1968 and Paghtghoda i.e. `Mad Horse` in 1971 in Hindi beautifully combined reality with imagination, helping to establish Sircar nationally. He handled Tendulkar`s harsh realism equally well on Gidhade i.e. `The Vultures` in 1973 and Kanyadan in 1987. Kalidasa`s Sakuntala in 1980 in lyrical dance movements contrasted with G. P. Deshpande`s political Uddhwasta dharmashala i.e. `A Man in Dark Times` in 1982. The inclination to see each play in a new way gave freshness to his work. Shyamanand Jalan rarely repeated himself.

As a director, Jalan gives importance to the text and respects the dramatist. He tries to absorb the inner meaning at a deeper level, and plans production details in a limited way, allowing them to develop during rehearsals. If the writer is available, he holds long discussions to understand the authorial point of view. For Lahron ke rajhans, Rakesh came to Calcutta for three weeks, watched the rehearsals, talked to Jalan, and rewrote the third act. This collaboration to take the script and production to completion became an important creative event in Indian theatre. Jalan had regular consultations with Sircar while working on Evam Indrajit, thus establishing in practice the latter`s opinion that his play had neither a happy nor a sorrowful ending. Shyamanand Jalan demonstrated his versatility as an actor with tremendous power and thought-provoking sensitivity. He was brilliant in the varied roles of Kunwar Mahendra Pratap in Vinod Rastogi`s Naye hath i.e. `New Hands` in 1957, the doctor mjanta ka shatru i.e. Ibsen`s Enemy of the People, in 1959, Kalidasa in Ashadh ka ek din, Sir Mehra in Chhapte chhapte, the king in Shuturmurg, and the writer in Evam Indrajit. He continued to impress at an older age as the professor protagonist of Uddhiuasta dharmashala and the father in Kanyadan. His easy acting style and personality were more suited to modern social drama. Jalan was not as successful in the parts of historical characters.

Shyamanand Jalan was a founder member of the group Anamika, The impresario outfits Anamika Kala Sangam, and the theatre and dance institution Padatik. All of them were situated in Calcutta. Jalan headed Padatik as artistic director for many years. The first theatre festival organized by an independent group rather than the government in Anamika in 1964 was very successful. The name of the festival was the Chhau festival under the banner of Anamika Kala Sangam in 1968. The Asian festival of theatre, dance, and martial arts under the aegis of Padatik in 1987 proved his wide range of visualization and execution of events. He became Vice-Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1999.

Jalan translated plays by Ibsen and Brecht, as well as gave the final form to important dramatizations of Bengali novels in Gharaur bahar i.e. `Home and Outside` in 1961. he has also done some Tagore`s work such as `Ghare-baire` and Hazar chaurasi ki ma i.e. `Mother of 1084` in 1978. This was done from Mahasweta Devi`s Hajar churashir ma. Shyamanand Jalan won an award as the villainous industrialist in Utpalendu Chakraborty`s Bengali film Chokh i.e. `Eyes` in 1982, and acted in television serials directed by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, and Amal Allana as well.


Shyamanand Jalan was an Icon of Indian Theatre. He was a bridge between Hindi & Bangla theatre. He was a great man with innovative ideas. He passed away on 24th. May 2010.