It is true that from the historical point of view, modern Hindi drama and theatre were introduced by Bharatendu Harishchandra in Varanasi. But what is also undeniable is that the kind of serious, relevant contemporary Hindi theatre which began in the early fifties, quickly taking the shape of a movement, had as its place of origin not any of the Hindi-speaking states, but metropolises like Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi. The rapidly rising, new generation of directors who proved to be the central force of Hindi theatre played a decisive role.
It is an interesting fact that it was the Hindi play and not Hindi theatre that first took up the challenge of originality. Though some indications could be felt in Jagdish Chandra Mathur's Konarka and Lakshmi Narayan Lal's Mada Cactus, it became clearly manifest in Dharamvir Bharati's Andha Yug and Mohan Rakesh's Asharh ka Ek Din, published in 1954 and 1958 respectively.
Andha Yug, considered an achievement in new verse, when staged by Dubey in Bombay in 1962, and then by Alkazi among the ruins of the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, proved to be not only one of the best plays in Indian drama, but its creative use of various theatrical techniques and breaking free from the confines of the proscenium also paved the way for future open-air presentations with only a symbolic use of stage decor.
These initial and fundamental experiments with stagecraft by Jalan (Anamika, Calcutta), Dubey (Theatre Unit, Bombay) and Alkazi (NSD, Delhi) may well be classified as the formative years of Hindi theatre. Independence, Partition, disillusionment, industrialization, technological development, sociopolitical and economic changes led to the breaking down of joint families.
The increasing middle-class dominance brought about radical changes in the individual - specially in sexual relationships and social values. The constant conflict of the individual with family and society gave rise to feelings of insecurity, anxiety, depression and tension which naturally found vivid expression in the contemporary idiom and dramatic language of various Indian literatures.
By 1967, there had appeared Girish Karnad's Tughlaq in Kannada (1964), Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit in Bengali (produced, 1965), and Vijay Tendulkar's Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe! in Marathi (produced, 1967). In Hindi, after his earlier historical play Lehron ke Rajhans (revised edition published in 1968), came Rakesh's much talked-about Adhe Adhure (produced, 1969).
Within a few months of each other, the classic non-Hindi plays were translated into Hindi, raising quite a storm when staged, while Rakesh's works were translated into other regional languages and performed by various directors, making waves in Indian theatre circles. Around 1967, therefore, began that new movement which gave Hindi theatre an identity of its own and established it on the national level at par with the rich dramatic traditions of other languages.
It is an interesting coincidence that Anamika Kala Sangam and Adakar in Calcutta, and groups like Dishantar and Abhiyan which enriched Delhi's stage, were formed in the same year. During this period the National School of Drama Repertory Comany also began independent productions and the presentation of Agra Bazar by Habib Tanvir's Naya Theatre, with his Chhattisgarhi artistes, enhanced and shaped folk-theatre traditions in the modern context, which earned him worldwide recognition.
In Delhi, Alkazi's productions, mostly translations of various Indian and foreign plays, became well known for their awesome grandeur, technical competence and production values. Dishantar and Abhiyan vied with one another in identifying and presenting new, meaningful Indian plays with originality. Dishantar's Tughlaq, Khamosh! Adalat Jari Hai and Adhe Adhure directed by Om Shivpuri, Suno Janmejay (by Adya Rangacharya) directed by Mohan Maharishi, Hayavadan directed by B V Karanth, and Trishanku written and directed by B M Shah; Abhiyan's Baki Itihas (Sircar), Panchhi Aise Ate Hain (Tendulkar) and Guinea pig (Mohit Chattopadhyay) directed by Rajinder Nath, and Pagla Ghora (Sicar) directed by T P Jain, were some of the most memorable productions of that time.
From the point of view of originality in dramatic literature, some progress has been made despite adverse circumstances. The loss of Mohan Rakesh, Jagdish Chandra Mathur, Lakshmi Narayan Lal, Shankar Shesh, Sarveshwar Dayal Saksena, Sharad Joshi and Ramesh Bakshi, left a great void in terms of originality in Hindi theatre writing. Mani Madhukar, Kusum Kumar and Mudrarakshasa have gone into self-imposed exile. Still, some activity remains with Bhisham Sahni, Surendra Verma, Asgar Wajahat, Nand Kishor Acharya, Mrinal Pande, Tripurari Sharma and others from both the old and new generations, showing an increasing inclination towards serious drama. The desire for thematic variations and experiments with stage and style have enriched writing to some extent.
Unfortunately, this progress is more in terms of quantity than quality as even today, most of the better-known works are dependent on myths and legends. Older strictures on performance have become quite flexible, yet there have been no imaginative forays into this newfound freedom. The influence of the realistic, classical and folk traditions is becoming greater. Despite all efforts, the future of Hindi theatre in this last decade of the twentieth century remains quite obscure, with difficult challenges ahead.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe
Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (Silence! The Court Is in Session) is a Marathi play written by playwright Vijay Tendulkar and first performed in 1967. The play was written in 1963, for Rangayan, a theatre group, though it was performed much later.
The play was based on a 1956 short-story, ‘Die Panne’ (Traps) by Swiss playwright, Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Translations
The play has since been translated into some sixteen languages in India and abroad, B.B.C. showed its English version, filmed by Satyadev Dubey [2] Actor-director, Om Shivpuri, directed the Hindi translation of the play as, ‘Khamosh! Adaalat Jaari Hai’. The play had his wife actress, Sudha Shivpuri, in the lead role, and is still considered an important production in the theatre history of India.
Synopsis
The play is political and social satire on middle-class society's hypocrisy [4].
It is set as a play-within-a-play, where a travelling amateur theatre group, makes an unscheduled stop at a village. There to pass time the cast members stage a mock trial, of a fellow cast member, Miss Benare, who is unmarried, sexually exploited and had earlier aborted a child to keep her honour.
During the course of the play, she is 'charged' of child abortion (Broon Hatya), and as the charges get more vicious and personal, she can't take them anymore, as she is reminded of her predicament.
Finally she breaks down, revealing the true story behind it all, and also the hegemony and hypocrisy of male cast members comes into the light, who like their counterpart in the society are not blameless themselves, while they still find it easy to point fingers at a woman's character.
Critical Acclaim
Its playwright, Vijay Tendulkar, got national recognition in the form of the ‘Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Award’ for drama in 1970 and "Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama) Award" in 1970 for playwriting
Film adaptation
Noted Marathi playwright and stage director, Satyadev Dubey, directed a Marathi film based on the play, with the same name in 1971. Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe, started the ‘New Cinema’ Movement in Marathi cinema [5], and is still considered one of India’s finest films [6].
It marked the debut of actors Amrish Puri and Amol Palekar [7], and also of Govind Nihalani for whom this was his first film as a full-fledged cinematographer; till then, he had worked an assistant to Guru Dutt’s cinematographer V.K. Murthy [8] Govind Nihalani also co-produced the film with Satyadev Dubey [9]
Lastly, this was also Vijay Tendulkar's first screenplay, who went on to write landmark films like Nishant, Aakrosh, Ardh Satya and Umbartha
Film CastArvind Deshpande
Sulbha Deshpande
Amrish Puri
Amol Palekar
Eknath Hattagadi
The play was based on a 1956 short-story, ‘Die Panne’ (Traps) by Swiss playwright, Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Translations
The play has since been translated into some sixteen languages in India and abroad, B.B.C. showed its English version, filmed by Satyadev Dubey [2] Actor-director, Om Shivpuri, directed the Hindi translation of the play as, ‘Khamosh! Adaalat Jaari Hai’. The play had his wife actress, Sudha Shivpuri, in the lead role, and is still considered an important production in the theatre history of India.
Synopsis
The play is political and social satire on middle-class society's hypocrisy [4].
It is set as a play-within-a-play, where a travelling amateur theatre group, makes an unscheduled stop at a village. There to pass time the cast members stage a mock trial, of a fellow cast member, Miss Benare, who is unmarried, sexually exploited and had earlier aborted a child to keep her honour.
During the course of the play, she is 'charged' of child abortion (Broon Hatya), and as the charges get more vicious and personal, she can't take them anymore, as she is reminded of her predicament.
Finally she breaks down, revealing the true story behind it all, and also the hegemony and hypocrisy of male cast members comes into the light, who like their counterpart in the society are not blameless themselves, while they still find it easy to point fingers at a woman's character.
Critical Acclaim
Its playwright, Vijay Tendulkar, got national recognition in the form of the ‘Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Award’ for drama in 1970 and "Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama) Award" in 1970 for playwriting
Film adaptation
Noted Marathi playwright and stage director, Satyadev Dubey, directed a Marathi film based on the play, with the same name in 1971. Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe, started the ‘New Cinema’ Movement in Marathi cinema [5], and is still considered one of India’s finest films [6].
It marked the debut of actors Amrish Puri and Amol Palekar [7], and also of Govind Nihalani for whom this was his first film as a full-fledged cinematographer; till then, he had worked an assistant to Guru Dutt’s cinematographer V.K. Murthy [8] Govind Nihalani also co-produced the film with Satyadev Dubey [9]
Lastly, this was also Vijay Tendulkar's first screenplay, who went on to write landmark films like Nishant, Aakrosh, Ardh Satya and Umbartha
Film CastArvind Deshpande
Sulbha Deshpande
Amrish Puri
Amol Palekar
Eknath Hattagadi
Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session:Social Criticism and Individual Tragedy
Vijay Tendulkar, a great Indian playwright
Vijay Tendulkar, one of the outstanding Indian playwrights, was born in Mumbai on 6thJanuary 1928. He started writing at an early age, and as a writer he has excelled in manydepartments of literature: essays, short stories, criticism, screenplay writing and drama. Inthe beginning he appeared as a controversial writer, but his works showed him as anhonest artist. His honesty and skill won him reputation and recognition. Today, he iscelebrated as a great Indian playwright.
Satire, Sarcasm and Reality in Silence!
The Court is in SessionIn Silence! The Court is in Session, Tendulkar has depicted the plight of a youngwoman, who is betrayed by the male dominated society. A traditional male dominatedsociety cannot relinquish its paralyzed values and customs. The society does not like toperceive or receive any social change. Tendulkar presents a treatment of those ugly waysof society in this play. It is a bitter satire against the social ills and an interesting attemptto criticize the follies that prevail in our society.
The Background and Story
I’d consider Silence! The Court is in Session to be Tendulkar’s best play. In it we find agroup of teachers who were planning to stage a play in a village. It so turned out that oneof the members of the cast did not show up. A local stagehand was asked to replace him.A rehearsal was arranged and a mock trial was staged to make him understand the courtprocedure. A mock charge of infanticide was leveled against Miss Benare, one of themembers of the cast. Then the pretend-play or game suddenly turned into a grim chargeand it emerged from the witness that Miss Benare did kill an illegitimate child by Prof.Damle, the missing member of the cast.
Charges
It is important here to note that these charges became verbalized only in the absence ofDamle. If he were present, the typical backbiting attitude of the self-righteous Indianmale would not have helped reveal the truth. Miss Benare was thrown into the dock andthere she remained trying to joke herself out of it, but trapped too murderously, by themale vultures around her. Witness after witness, charge upon charge was heaped uponher. The defense lawyer was so frightened that he only asked for a little mercy on herbehalf. Miss Benare who is on the offensive at the beginning found herself trapped at theclose of the play.
The Plight of Miss Benare
Benare is an educated woman about thirty-four years old. She worked as a schoolteacher.She was also associated with an amateur dramatic alliance, whose prime purpose was toeducate the public with social and current issues. The association chose to educate peoplewith procedures of a court of law. They arrived on the spot quite early, thus they decidedto have a rehearsal of mock court. Benare was reluctant to perform the role of an accusedbut this reluctance was ignored. The playwright endeavors to create a game-like non-serious atmosphere. But soon the imaginary charges led to personal dilemmas.Benare is seen in a cheerful mood of flamboyance, but she gets her first blow, whenPonkshe, a scientist, says, “She runs after men too much.” Karnik, one of the characters,says that Benare was in love with her maternal uncle but the affair ended in fiasco. Hefurther “reveals’ her past life by saying that she first proposed to Ponkshe and then triedto deceive Rokde, a young boy.
The Judgment
Mr. Kashikar, the presiding Judge, reads out the charge and pronounces:“Prisoner Miss Benare, under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, you have beenaccused of the crime of infanticide. Are you guilty of the aforementioned crime?”Benare says: “I couldn’t kill even a common cockroach. I’m scared to do it. How could Ikill a newborn child?”This falls deaf on the ears of men in the court. Benare’s views are rejected by all of them,and it seems like a pre-planned conspiracy. Benare herself observes their odious natureby saying, “ You’ve all deliberately ganged up against me! You have plotted against me.”
Literally Trapped
Benare tries to leave the court but becomes upset when all doors all automatically boltedfrom outside. In fact, she is trapped and can’t escape. Furthermore, Mrs. Kashikarexecutes physical violence to drag Benare to the dock. She has another damaging viewagainst Benare. She does not hesitate to say that these young unmarried girls geteverything without marrying. She shows her doubt, how can Benare remain unmarried tillthe age of thirty-four?
Accusations Not on File
Thus, the main charge is wholly forgotten during the trail. All the characters try toimpose their personal comments and accuse Benare of wrong-doing and immoral acts, inone form or another. The game of mock trial, which started for entertainment, turns intoBenare’s tragedy. Benare is totally devastated. She is also stricken with a sense of fearlike a trapped animal, and has been dismembered morally and socially.Benare utters only these words, after her failure in love with her maternal uncle: “Life isa poisonous snake that bites itself. Life is a betrayal. Life is a fraud. Life is a drug. Life isdrudgery… Life is a very dreadful thing.” She wanted to die, but she could not.
Destroy the Child!
The judgment itself seems more absurd. Mr. Kashikar says: “The crimes you havecommitted are most terrible. There is no forgiveness for them…No memento of your sinshould remain for future generations. Therefore this court hereby sentences that you shalllive. But the child in your womb shall be destroyed."
Mockery of Trials, Judges and Justice
A judicial court is supposed to be a seat of Justice, seriousness and decorum. Throughthis play, Tendulkar also makes a review of the present day court procedures, and pointsout the problem of degradation and the loss of the dignity of the court. It is a matter offact that a witness has to take an oath keeping his hand on the Gita or some such religious scripture, during the court procedures.In the play, the witnesses take oath touching the Oxford English Dictionary. What is more, Mr. Kasikar, the judge, also jumps into the witness box in violation of all courtprocedures and decorum, and declares his personal views from the witness stand: "A sinful canker on the body of society- that’s my honest opinion of these grown-upunmarried girls.”
Who Is Under Attack Here?
Tendulkar has criticized the middle-class morality that throttles the tender desires ofBenare, a middle class woman, to mother a child in the play. Tendulkar seems to leavethe play without suggesting any solution to the problem. None in the play is ready tosympathize with Benare. Only Mr. Kashikar, the judge, feels that they are going too far intheir mock-trial but, then, he immediately silences his conscience. After all the Court is insession, and everyone is expected to keep silence! Tendulkar covertly pleads forsympathy for the victims of the society through this flash of humanity for a moment inthe heart of Mr. Kashikar.6Silence! The Court is in Session is not a propaganda play. It grapples with severalproblems of the Indian society—such as the degradation of the judiciary system,pretentious institutional social service organizations, and forceful male supremacy inIndian society, in a masterful way. However, the fact is that we look at the world and ourfriends, relatives, et al., and value their roles only from their utility towards our ends.Conventional morality is only an imaginary issue..
A conversation with Sir Vijay Tendulkar
On 17th dec 06, i was at NCPA for my first performance in mumbai,thanx to Thespo8 and Quasar Padamsay. My theatre gang from IT BHU,varanasi had arrived to watch it,12 of them.one of my juniors,abhijeet before coming to mumbai, had a talk with Sir Vijay Tendulkar on phone and had asked for a meeting during his visit to which he had agreed. On 18th march,while all of them were getting ready to leave, abhijeet called him up at 9 AM and tendulkar sir asked to come on 19th as he wasnt well. But when abhijeet said he had a train tonight he asked him to call back at 4.At 4 he asked to come by 6, and abhijeet,vaibhav (one of my lead actors in my last play at campus) and I went to his house to meet him. A modest house in a very modest building. A care taker and a dog welcomed us in and after waiting for 2 mins in a drawing room fitted with almirahs having just books, we were called to where he was sitiing. He asked for introduction and after realising that abhijeet and Vaibhav had come to watch my performance, he said to me “Aise dost hone chahiye”. We told him that we have been doing theatre for quite sometime and we have questions in our mind regarding writing. This is how the whole conversation went….
WE: After reading your plays I got the strength to portary my perception more honestly. But people ask me and they must have asked you also..”Why baby“, “why sakharam“…”is life really so dark and cruel?”
HE: what is your answere to such questions?
US: I tell them,that your plays are an extrapolation of reality. Baby accepted suffering dutifully the way dark people accepted slavery and slaughter…. Acceptance of torture is a way of living…Baby is an extrapolation of reality.
HE: I personally dont bother about people who havn’t seen life. They close their eyes at the sight of suffering as if it doesnt exist. The fact is that life is dark and cruel, its just that you dont care for the truth. You dont want to see it because it might make you uncomfortable. If escapism is your way of living then you will fail to see the truth. I have not written about hypothetical pain or created an imaginary world of sorrow. I am from a middle class family and I have seen the brutal ways of life by keeping my eyes open. My work has come from within me,as an outcome of my observation of the world in which I live. If they want to entertain and make merry, fine go ahead, but I cant do it, I have to speak the truth.
WE: Khamosh!adalat Zari hai,made me realise that to classify people, emotions, relationships into right-wrong, good-evil, fair-unfair is not appropriate. The better classification wud be “comfortable-uncomfortable”. But it is extremely difficult to convince others through writing. what conscious effort do you make to ensure that your point goes accross?
HE: good-bad, right-wrong, once you tag things like that, you lose the abilty to see the complete truth. Criminal is not only a criminal.A murderer can also be a loving father.firstly, Dont tag things. The words which you and I have just used, they are insufficient to describe the picture in totality.Try not getting trapped in the dictionary meaning of words. As for me, I simply care to see and keep my eyes open, what comes out in my writing is natural without the concious effort of convincing or justifying.
WE: At times the charecters we design have the same weaknessess that we have and sketching that charecter honestly would be like accepting your weaknesses. Its difficult to accept your own weaknessess and sufferings and write about them honestly. What should one do?From where does one get courage to write about his own weaknesses honestly?
HE: Maintaining distance between your experiences and writings helps a lot. Its not necessary to write exactly at the time when you have just experienced something. give time, it will give you clarity to see things better. Once you are at a distance fom your experiences, when you see things from outside, you write more honestly. Besides, the pain of writing the truth will always be there, “yeh tapasya ki tarah hai”.,learn to bear it.
WE: At times we feel very strongly about something,but the moment we pen it down it appears very stupid. It all suddenly starts appearing so small after it is written. what should one do?
HE: Dont worry, it happens even with a lot of experienced writers. come back to what you have penned after 10days, 20 days again and again,it will make more sense to you then.
WE: How does one research before writing?
HE: Research is not the right word. I dont deliberately try to find out things before I write. One does not live to write. You live, and writing beomes an offshoot from it. I live my life keeping my eyes open, observing things, and then something comes to me from what I had seen before and I write it down. I feel something and then I expresss my feelings, it comes from within, based on how I have lived.
US: Is it right to do the reverse of this? At times I just want to write, and for that I deliberately search within myself to find something worthy of writing.
HE: I dont do this but then there are various processess of creativity. It might work for you, but it doesnt for me. In this case of Afzal, I am reading all the articles in newspapers and magazines, just gathering information about him gradually. May be some day I might reflect on him.
WE: Our perception of reality is influenced by our own experiences, at times I feel that what I am writing is what I think to be true, but may be the truth is entirely different?
HE: What is reality? The coexistence of the observer and the happening makes the reality. Reality becomes reality only when it is seen. There is nothing like absolute reality.Your perception of what is happening combined with the happening makes the picture of reality complete. Dont get frustrated, write what you see.
WE: How much is it important for a writer to be well read? At times it interferes with your own writing,so doesnt it contaminate it?There is always a fear of borrowed writing?
HE: A man who just sits in his room and reads books without looking at the outside world is only half a man. But if you observe and read too, then it helps you in sharpening the tool of language. It gives you ways of expression. You learn how to express and your language improves which makes it easy to write. Dont worry about the borrowing part as long as you are honest.Your writing will always be influenced by your experiences with other people. will you call it borrowing from them. Reading is just another experience.
WE: When did you start writing?
HE: so many people have asked this question.
WE: We are from middle calss north indian families, where children eigther become doctors or engineers. Theatre and literature is never encouraged, its useless according to parents. We were exposed to theatre at IT BHU at an age of 19-20. So at times we doubt that may be we are too late to begin writing.
HE: ok. I started writing at an early age. But dont worry, about age. Its never too late. I have friends who have started writing at the age of 50 and they write excellently. Just keep going and it will come.
And before we could say any thing else he started coughing badly. He reached for the glass of water on the table and after taking few sips, his hand started shivering badly. He was trying to put the glass back on the table but couldn’t do it. I moved ahead to take the glass from him and he gestured with the other hand-”No”. We left with the words,”we would wish to meet you again later” and he nodded a big yes while still coughing.
Modern Theatre
Modern Classics
New theatre has produced some modern classics. Vijay Tendulkar's Ghasi Ram Kotwal is one such play on the life of morally decadent Peshwa ruler Nana Phadnavis and the corrupt Brahmans of Pune with music and dance woven in the very fabric of the play inspired by Dashavatar traditional form. These elements of traditional form sharpen the irony of the situations. Jabbar Patel's production of the same play in 1973 is a landmark in the new theatre. The play has been performed in several Indian languages and has enjoyed great popularity. Girish Karnad, noted Kannada playwright, wrote Hayavadan taking inspiration from Thomas Mann's short novel Transposed Heads which is turn is based on an ancient Indian tale given in Kathasaritsagar by Gunadhya. The play has been constructing using elements from the traditional form of Yakshagan of his region. B.V. Karanth's production of the play in 1971 with music and movements is another significant work of the new theatre. The play has been performed in several Indian languages and is marked for its innovative structure and elements.
Karanth also produced Shakespeare's Macbeth with the Repertory of National School of Drama in a new verse translation titles Barnam Van by the late Hindi poet Reghuvir Sahai. Karanth also used performance elements of Yakshagan. Robin Das, a creative stage designer, designed most imaginative set and costume, which showed some similarity with theatre of South East Asian theatre. Shakespeare's plays have been performed in India since mid-nineteenth century both in the original language and translations and adaptations in most of the Indian languages. However, it was for the first time that Karanth did Macbeth using indigenous performance elements and putting strong imprint of Indian performance culture. Karanth hails from Karnataka and brings out productions both in Karnataka and Hindi.
Another Kannada playwright Chandrasekhar Kambar, poet, novelist and folklorist has written several plays which have been performed in Kannada, Hindi and other major languages. He draws upon the rich resources of folklore and uses elements from Bayalata, a folk form of his region. His most popular play Jokumaraswamy, which received the national award, starts with a fertility rite in honour of the phallic deity Jokumar, who is worshipped in the form of a snake gourd and then consumed by those desirous of bearing children. An impotent landlords' virgin wife feeds the snake gourd by mistake to the village rake and has a child by him. The rake's death at the hands of the landlord is a kind of gang-rape-cum-fertility offering. The landlord himself is literally left holding the baby he cannot dispose off.
Kambar who mostly draws themes for his plays from the folk tales and traditional myths also wrote a play Siri Sampize based on two Kannada short stories which were also used by Girish Karnad for his play Nagmandal. But Kambar's play treats the stories bit differently. The play has been performed in Hindi, titled Aks Tamasha. Kambar's language is earthy and rich in metaphors and imagery.
Senior director Prasanna from Karnataka produces plays both in Kannada and in Hindi, mostly working as a Guest Director for the repertory company of the National School of Drama. He belongs to the class of directors who still primarily work in naturalistic idiom but occasionally introduce experimental elements in their productions. Prasanna's Sanskrit play Uttar Ramcharit by Bhavabhuti in Hindi translation, was admired for its innovative elements. He also directed Girish Karnad's latest play Agni-Mattumalle in Hindi translation titles Agni Aur Barkha. The production was mounted with great competence.
E. Alkazi, first Director of National School of Drama (NSD) and a senior theatre director did several memorable productions using variety of spaces in the sixties and seventies. It was for the first time that a director used ancient historical monuments of Delhi for staging plays. His production of Dharmvir Bharati's verse play Andha Yug (The Blind Age) dealing with the great war between the Kauravas and Pandavas, is still a masterpiece. In this production he was the first director to use ramparts and a large platform stage in the ruins of Ferozeshah Kotla and then Purana Quila's tiered steps. Using NSD's open air theatre with multiple local, he also produced Girish Karnad's historical play Tughlaq, on the life of the 14th century Sultan of Delhi. Alkazi set new standards in every branch of a theatrical production and gave Indian theatre sophisticated professionalism.
Actor-director, the late Om Shivpuri directed Vijay Tendulkar's play Shantata, Court Chalu Ahe (Silent, Court is in Session) in Hindi translation with his actress wife Sudha in the main role. Both the play and the production showed freshness of structure and were marked for their improvisatory character, Shivpuri later directed Girish Karnad's historical play Tughlaq too on the ridges of Talkatora Gardens with innovative elements.
Similarly senior Hindi actor-directors Shyamanand Jalan in Calcutta and Sataydev Dubey in Bombay, both working in realistic mould, have done several productions over the years. Their productions are mounted with great competence. Their forte is the dramatic word, and delivery of dialogues. Badal Sarkar's play Evam Indrajit and Gyandev Agnihotri's Shuturmurg are Jalan's noteworthy productions in which he resorted to stylization with great success. Credit goes to Dubey for first discovering theatrical potentialities of Bharati's Andha Yug (The Blind Age) when he presented it in 1962 on Alkazi's terrace theatre in Mumbai.
A fine Delhi-based actor-director, Ramgopal Bajaj, has several noteworthy directorial works to his credits. His most innovative and bold production is of Hindi classic Andha-Yug. Bajaj built a massive structure on the NSD Campus in the shape of pond with steps. Actors performed all around on the steps. Actors performed all around on the steps, and also on a platform stage built in the pond. Audience also sat on one side of the steps. Unique feature of the production was that the actors also served as Kathavachak (story-tellers). Just by turning over their robes hanging loosely on the shoulders, they became story-tellers and formed a group. Choreography, an important feature of the production, was by the modern dancer-choregrapher, Bharat Sharma and the music was provided by B.V. Karanth.
In Hindi, the late playwright Mohan Rakesh, wrote all his plays in realistic mould. His forte is dramatic language. His Ashadh Ka Ek Din, on the life Sanskrit poet and playwright Kalidas has been widely translated and performed. Another play Adhe Adhure presents a grim picture of a disintegrating middle class family. It is the first important play in Hindi on this problem of the contemporary society. It has been widely performed in Hindi and several other languages.
Senior director Amal Allana, working in Hindi, directs plays in naturalistic idiom with great competence. Her husband Nisar Allana, a stage designer, prefers to mount heavy and elaborate sets for her productions which often obstruct the flow of dramatic action and movements of the actors. Some of her successful and acclaimed productions are - Mahabhoj, a dramatization of the novel of the same name by its author Mannu Bhandari. Brecht's Mother Courage in Hindi adaptation as Himmat Mai, with veteran actor Manohar Singh in the mother's role, is also a significant production of Allana. Her production of King Lear in Hindi translation in a large open space with multiple locales was well acted again by Manohar Singh in the role of King Lear. She seated the audience at one fixed point forcing frontal view of the performance. The audience had to constantly move their neck in different directions to follow the action. It is regrettable that with such exciting experiment with space, she did not take the audience into account.
Sheela Bhatia with her group Delhi Arts Theatre is the only director who writes and directs operas both in Punjabi and Urdu. Some of her better known operas are - Vedi Ki Goonj, Heer Ranjhha, Chann Badlan Da, which is rich in Punjabi folk tunes, Dard Aayega Dabe Paon based on the poetry of famous Urdu poet Faiz, Ameer Khusro and Ghalib Kaun Hai by S.M. Mahandi. In North India with a rich tradition of folk operas like Nautanki, Swang, Bhagat and Khyal, she is the only modern director who took to writing and producing operas.
The senior Delhi-based directors in Hindi theatre, Rajinder Nath and M.K. Raina generally work in naturalistic idiom, though occasionally do experimental works too. Rajinder Nath's Ghasi Ram Kotwal with music, dance and movements was a great success. Dharamvir Bharati's famous play Andha-Yug directed by M.K. Raina at the Purana Quila was most spectacular theatrical piece using vast performance area with ramparts and tiered steps. On the other hand, Bhopal based Bansi Kaul does experimental productions using elements and conventions from folk forms. A most creative stage director, he also often conducts workshops for actors in other linguistic regions. His noted production is Panchali Shapatham, a poetic play by the famous Tamil poet Subramanyam Bharati. The production was the result of a forty-day workshop in Tamil Nadu. This production marked the beginning of the new theatre movement in Tamil Nadu. His another important production is Ala Afsar, a creative adaptation of Gogol's famous play Inspector General by Hindi writer Mudrarakshash. Kaul also did Bhasa's Panchratra with an imaginative set.
In Marathi theatre with Mumbai as its center, there has always been large theatre-going audience. Vijay Tendulkar, Vasant Kanetkar, Jaywant Dalvi, Mahesh Alkunchwar and Satish Aleker are the playwrights who have fed the Marathi theatre with their rich plays. They had also been translated and performed in Hindi and other Indian languages. All of them write in realistic mould. Senior actress director, Vijaya Mehta did pioneering experimental theatre in the sixties and seventies as some other group theatres did it. With large audience there is a strong flourishing commercial theatre in Mumbai. Too counter it, group theatres always did experimental work even when working in naturalistic mould. Alekar's Begum Barwe, a musical in his own direction has been highly acclaimed.
In Bengali theatre, senior actor-director, the late Sombu Mitra and his most accompalished actress wife Tripthi Mitra with their group 'Bahuroopi' discovered Tagore's plays in theatrical terms and mounted quite powerful productions. These productions are - Raktakarbi (Red Olieander), Raja (King of the dark chamber), Visarjan (Sacrifice) and Muktadhara (The River Unbound). They set a new standard in acting specializing in the delivery of dialogues. They also did some contemporary Bengali plays, and adaptation of Ibsen's Doll's House titled as Putulkhela with great success.
Another senior Bengali actor-director, the late Utpal Dutt, committed to Marxist ideology practiced political theatre. He is known for mounting massive productions with lage sets and crowd scenes. Dutt mostly wrote his own plays Angar on the problems of the coal miners was a great success and created sensation with lighting designed by Tapas Sen.
The mines were shown flooded with the workers drowing in them. Another powerful play Kallol (Sound of waves, 1965) concerns with the Bombay Naval Mutiny of 1946. He also wrote a play on the Vietnam war. Dutt remained committed to his philosophy of revolutionary theatre and to his political ideas. He also wrote and directed plays for Jatra, the indigenous popular theatre form.
Bengali playwright and director Badal Sarkar has developed his own aesthetics and philosophy of 'Third Theatre' which seeks maximum intimacy between actor and spectators. He uses simple halls and with benches and stools create varying relationship between actors and spectators. He has written several plays which have been widely performed all over India. His important plays are - Evam Indrajit, dealing with the monotony and emptiness of life of the middle class youth, Baki Itihas, Pagla Ghorha, Sesh Nai etc. He did some of his plays like Dhoma and Michhil in public parks where the performance is surrounded by the audience.
This vibrancy of the contemporary Indian theatre also has great variety in production styles and dramatic forms. In this connection special mention should be made of the directorial work of Deoraj Ankur in creating a new theatrical genre called Kahani Ka Rangmanch. It was in 1975 that Ankur presented three short stories by the reputed Hindi writer Nirmal Verma under a common title Teen Ekant (Three Situations of Loneliness). Since then he has been presented short stories and novels though not in usual dramatized version. What Ankur does is to lift the short story from the printed page and put it on the stage. The presenters of the story are not impersonators and performer as in a dramatic presentation. The spectators get a new experience of the short stories which is different from their reading of them. Ankur does not provide any special costume to the presenters nor or there any scenic means. He gives simple blocking to the presenters for moving, sitting and standing. He often presents two or three stories by different writers under one common title. With the popularity of this new theatrical genre, several young directors have taken to the presentation of short stories without dramatizing them much. There is a great creative stir in Indian theatre which is being practiced in many forms and styles. NSD, New Delhi with its training programme and organization of national theatre festival in the capital has greatly contributed to this stir. For the last ten years are so NSD's regional center at Bangalore has encouraged interaction between theatre of the North India and South India.
Encounter with performance tradition and the rise of a new theatrical form and idiom has led to a great debate in contemporary Indian theatre. Those playwrights and directors who still practice naturalistic theatre denounce these efforts and consider the use of performance elements and conventions from the traditional and folk theatre as misappropriation. The protagonists of the new theatre lay emphasis on return to roots to liberate Indian theatre from its colonial moorings.
However, encounter with rich performance tradition has reversed the process and the theatrical productions have acquired new idiom. Directors now maximize stage sings and symbols and minimize literary sings, thus creating a rich performance text. Traditionally, there has always been great emphasis on creating a performance text rich in staging elements and visual quality. Tradition even provides a separate word for performance text. In Sanskrit, dramatic text is referred to as Kavya or Drishya Kavya, whereas performance text is prayoga. Similarly Jatra of West Bengal is a performance form and pala is a dramatic text. Bhand Pather of Kashmir is dramatic text, whereas Bhand Jashna is performance text.
In this running account of the modern theatre which arose in the mid-nineteenth century under the direct influence of British theatrical tradition causing a breach with the old and living performance tradition of the country, and emergence of 'new' theatre after Independence as part of the process of de-colonisation and quest for identity, three theatrical movements had to be left out to maintain a logical continuity of the narrative. A brief account of these movements is being given here.
Parsi Theatre
Parsi theatre as a commercial venture of rich Parsi community living in Bombay, had all the elements of a hybrid theatre. Beginning in 1853, it continued with great popularity until the '30s and '40s of the 20th century when it could not complete first with the silent cinema and then the talkies. Most of the actors and actresses of Parsi theatre worked in early films, and plays popular in Parsi theatre such as Inder Sabha, Alam Aara, and Khonne Nahaq, (based on Hamlet story) were picturised. Cinema also retained several stage practices and conventions of the Parsi theatre such as abundance of songs and dances.
It is relevant to note that before the beginning of the commercial Parsi theatre, for several years there was an active amateur theatre movement, which performed plays in English, Gujarati and Hindustani. There was a dramatic club which also did Sanskrit plays translated from the English translations done by H.H. Wilson. Amateur theatre activity had created a taste for theatre and built an audience for it. Taking advantage of this, some rich Parsis established theatre companies. They also built theatre halls to sustain commercial theatre activity. Some of these theatre halls were Alphinston Theatre built in 1853; Edward Theatre built in 1860; Gaity Theatre; Empire Theatre built in 1898; Trivoli Theatre, Novelty Theatre, National Theatre, Victoria Theatre, Royal Opera House; Alfred Company; Willingdon Cinema and Hindi Natyashala. Some of the Parsi theatre companies and dramatic clubs established in Bombay were Parsi Natak Mandali; Amateur Dramatic Club; Alphinston Dramatic Club, Parsi Stage Players, Zorostrain Natak Mandali, Zorostrain Dramatic Society; Persian Zorostrain Natak Mandali; Oriental Natak Mandali; Oriental Dramatic Club; Zorostrain Dramatic Club, Zorostrain Club; Parsi Club, Albert Natak Mandali, Shakespeare Natak Mandali; Victorian Natak Mandali, Original Victorian Club, Parsi Victorian Opera Troupe, Hindi Natak Mandali etc. Along with Bombay, in some other cities and large towns also theatrical companies were established. In Rajasthan several princely states also had theatrical companies. Jharhawad and Tonk had famous companies. Other states too sponsored theatrical companies.
There were quite a few playwrights to meet the growing demand of plays and most of them were attached to theatrical companies on a fulltime salary basis. Some playwrights wrote in Urdu, some in Hindi and some preferred Hindustani. Versified dialogues were the special feature of the text, and were delivered with great theatricality. Some of the important playwrights were Abbas Ali Abbas, Zarif Husaini Mian, Raunak Mahmood Mian Banarasi, Munshi Vinayak Prasad Talib, Narayan Prasad 'Betab', Aagha Hashra Kashmiri, Mehandi Hasan, Pandit Radhey Shyam Kathavachak etc. Some of Pandit Radhey Shyam's plays such as Veer Abhimanyu were of literary value and dramatically structured. These plays were also widely performed by early amateur theatre groups. He also wrote Ramayana which is famous as Radhey Shyam Ramayana and is used for textual material for Ramlila plays in Punjab and in some regions of Uttar Pradesh. He along with Agha Hashra and 'Betab' were the most significance playwrights of Parsi theatre. Plays were written of epic and puranic stories, historical and social subjects. Stories of love and sacrifice from various parts of the world were also written about and performed on stage. Plots were freely borrowed and changed from Shakespeare's plays. A significant feature of stage presentation was a running comic story presented after each drop curtain.
These companies were professionally organized and went on a performing tour to distant cities. They also went to neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar) and Malaysia. In these countries their popularity and impact was so great that in Malaysia it has survived in the popular opera Bangsawan which evolved from the Parsi theatre incorporating some elements from indigenous theatre and Western opera.
The southern state and their own counterpart of Parsi commercial theatre called Company Natak, and companies were organized in various languages regions. Karnataka had a famous Gubbi Viranna Company. Veteran director B.V. Karanth of modern theatre worked in this company at the age of fourteen and played the role of Krishna and some female roles. There is still a company in Andhra Pradesh called 'Surabhi', with some 70 members living together as an extended family. The company stays in a village some 45 kilometers from Hyderabad. It is 100 years old and performs in the old style of Company Natak. Eminent Kannada playwright Girish Karnad wrote his famous play Tughlaq structured on the model of Company Natak plays.
Melodrama, suspense and sensational effects were the main ingredients of Parsi theatre. There were painted curtains with conventional scenes- Palace, Fort, River, Mountains and a drop curtain used to indicate the end of an act. Drop curtain was always used at a climactic point in the play with a striking tableau. If there was an enthusiastic audience and continued clapping, the curtain was lifted again and again, and tableau kept frozen. A popular actor with good voice always managed to get "once more" calls from the audience, and he would repeat the song - sometimes there were more than one 'once more' calls. Elaborate sets, gorgeous scenery and trick scenes managed with elaborate stage machinery were always loudly applauded.
For costume and stage décor, Parsi theatre depended on Raja Ravi Verma's calendar art. Ravi Verma began modern painting in India at the beginning of the 20th century using oil color technique and European tradition of painting. He, in turn, was influenced by the Parsi theatre in choosing puranic themes, and also in composing scenes and settings. He also composed tableau influenced by Parsi theatre. His paintings Sita Swayamvar and Sita Bhupravesham look like stage pictures of Parsi theatre.
IPTA
The Two theatre movements, though shortlived, are important in the history of modern Indian theatre. One is the Jan Natya Sangh, popularly known as IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatre Association), which was a cultural forum of the Communist Party of India. It was founded in 1942 in Calcutta. The immediate cause for this was the Bengal Famine, when three million people starved to death due to the negligence of the ruling class.
In 1944 Bijan Bhattacharya, one of the founders of IPTA in Calcutta, wrote a play Nabanna (New Harvest) which dramatized the exploitation of presents by the land owners. Bhattacharya also wrote another play Zabanbandi. Both the plays were directed by actor director Sombhu Mitra. Seeing the popularity of Zabanbandi, it was also performed in Hindi as Antim Abhilasha. The troupe went to Bombay to give performances of these two plays to collect money for famine relief fund. Another item prepared by this Calcutta trope was Bhukha Hai Bengal consisting of songs and dances. Seeing the success of these plays the General Secretary of the Communist Party decided to establish a Central Ballet Troupe in Bombay.
In 1942-43 Udya Shankar Center at Almore, which used to train and develop modern creative dancers, had closed. As a result some dancers like Shanti Vardhan, Narendra Sharma and Shachin Shankar also joined the IPTA Central Troupe along with musician Ravi Shankar. Shanti Vardhan was the main choreographer and leader of the troupe. Two ballets - Bharat Ki Atma (Spirit of India) and Amar Bharat (India Immortal) were prepared having a duration of one hour each. A few songs and dances were also prepared collectively to make it a programme of two hours. Binoy Roy who had a powerful voice was the main singer. The troupe toured all over the country to collect funds for Bengal famine. Filled with missionary zeal, performance was given with great gusto.
New in form and content, these theatrical shows were very popular and made quite a big impact. IPTA movement spread with branches in every state involving theatre artists, dancers, musicians, folk singers and performers. The Party also greatly encouraged popular forms of ballad singing such as 'Burra Katha' of Andhra Pradesh and 'Pawada' of Maharashtra. Popular folk form of Tamasha of Maharashtra with its pungent for humour and satire was also exploited for political purposes.
There were political differences in the Party. And in 1947, the Central Troupe was closed. There are still IPTA groups in some states but they are not of much artistic consequence.
IPTA also made a film Dharti Ke Lal directed by K.A. Abbas. Music was provided by Ravi Shankar and the actors included Sambhu Mitra, Balraj Sahani, Damayanti Sahani and Tripti Bhaduri, who later married Sambhu Mitra and evolved as one of the greatest actresses of this century in the country.
Prithvi Theatre
Parsi theatre had died and there was a total vacuum in the theatre life of the country. It was in such a situation that popular and highly respected film actor Prithvi Raj Kapoor started his Prithvi Theatre with a missionary zeal. Though it was an individual venture, it had the force and effect of a movement. It was started in 1944. Inspired by the ideals of nationalism and communal harmony, he had such plays in his repertoire as Deewar, Pathan, Ghaddar and Ahuti. He also staged Sanskrit Classic Shakuntala. His troupe turned whole of North India and mostly performed in the morning in cinema houses since no theatre halls were available. After the performance he used to move in the audience to collect funds for his theatre. Regretfully, he had to close it down in 1960.
New theatre has produced some modern classics. Vijay Tendulkar's Ghasi Ram Kotwal is one such play on the life of morally decadent Peshwa ruler Nana Phadnavis and the corrupt Brahmans of Pune with music and dance woven in the very fabric of the play inspired by Dashavatar traditional form. These elements of traditional form sharpen the irony of the situations. Jabbar Patel's production of the same play in 1973 is a landmark in the new theatre. The play has been performed in several Indian languages and has enjoyed great popularity. Girish Karnad, noted Kannada playwright, wrote Hayavadan taking inspiration from Thomas Mann's short novel Transposed Heads which is turn is based on an ancient Indian tale given in Kathasaritsagar by Gunadhya. The play has been constructing using elements from the traditional form of Yakshagan of his region. B.V. Karanth's production of the play in 1971 with music and movements is another significant work of the new theatre. The play has been performed in several Indian languages and is marked for its innovative structure and elements.
Karanth also produced Shakespeare's Macbeth with the Repertory of National School of Drama in a new verse translation titles Barnam Van by the late Hindi poet Reghuvir Sahai. Karanth also used performance elements of Yakshagan. Robin Das, a creative stage designer, designed most imaginative set and costume, which showed some similarity with theatre of South East Asian theatre. Shakespeare's plays have been performed in India since mid-nineteenth century both in the original language and translations and adaptations in most of the Indian languages. However, it was for the first time that Karanth did Macbeth using indigenous performance elements and putting strong imprint of Indian performance culture. Karanth hails from Karnataka and brings out productions both in Karnataka and Hindi.
Another Kannada playwright Chandrasekhar Kambar, poet, novelist and folklorist has written several plays which have been performed in Kannada, Hindi and other major languages. He draws upon the rich resources of folklore and uses elements from Bayalata, a folk form of his region. His most popular play Jokumaraswamy, which received the national award, starts with a fertility rite in honour of the phallic deity Jokumar, who is worshipped in the form of a snake gourd and then consumed by those desirous of bearing children. An impotent landlords' virgin wife feeds the snake gourd by mistake to the village rake and has a child by him. The rake's death at the hands of the landlord is a kind of gang-rape-cum-fertility offering. The landlord himself is literally left holding the baby he cannot dispose off.
Kambar who mostly draws themes for his plays from the folk tales and traditional myths also wrote a play Siri Sampize based on two Kannada short stories which were also used by Girish Karnad for his play Nagmandal. But Kambar's play treats the stories bit differently. The play has been performed in Hindi, titled Aks Tamasha. Kambar's language is earthy and rich in metaphors and imagery.
Senior director Prasanna from Karnataka produces plays both in Kannada and in Hindi, mostly working as a Guest Director for the repertory company of the National School of Drama. He belongs to the class of directors who still primarily work in naturalistic idiom but occasionally introduce experimental elements in their productions. Prasanna's Sanskrit play Uttar Ramcharit by Bhavabhuti in Hindi translation, was admired for its innovative elements. He also directed Girish Karnad's latest play Agni-Mattumalle in Hindi translation titles Agni Aur Barkha. The production was mounted with great competence.
E. Alkazi, first Director of National School of Drama (NSD) and a senior theatre director did several memorable productions using variety of spaces in the sixties and seventies. It was for the first time that a director used ancient historical monuments of Delhi for staging plays. His production of Dharmvir Bharati's verse play Andha Yug (The Blind Age) dealing with the great war between the Kauravas and Pandavas, is still a masterpiece. In this production he was the first director to use ramparts and a large platform stage in the ruins of Ferozeshah Kotla and then Purana Quila's tiered steps. Using NSD's open air theatre with multiple local, he also produced Girish Karnad's historical play Tughlaq, on the life of the 14th century Sultan of Delhi. Alkazi set new standards in every branch of a theatrical production and gave Indian theatre sophisticated professionalism.
Actor-director, the late Om Shivpuri directed Vijay Tendulkar's play Shantata, Court Chalu Ahe (Silent, Court is in Session) in Hindi translation with his actress wife Sudha in the main role. Both the play and the production showed freshness of structure and were marked for their improvisatory character, Shivpuri later directed Girish Karnad's historical play Tughlaq too on the ridges of Talkatora Gardens with innovative elements.
Similarly senior Hindi actor-directors Shyamanand Jalan in Calcutta and Sataydev Dubey in Bombay, both working in realistic mould, have done several productions over the years. Their productions are mounted with great competence. Their forte is the dramatic word, and delivery of dialogues. Badal Sarkar's play Evam Indrajit and Gyandev Agnihotri's Shuturmurg are Jalan's noteworthy productions in which he resorted to stylization with great success. Credit goes to Dubey for first discovering theatrical potentialities of Bharati's Andha Yug (The Blind Age) when he presented it in 1962 on Alkazi's terrace theatre in Mumbai.
A fine Delhi-based actor-director, Ramgopal Bajaj, has several noteworthy directorial works to his credits. His most innovative and bold production is of Hindi classic Andha-Yug. Bajaj built a massive structure on the NSD Campus in the shape of pond with steps. Actors performed all around on the steps. Actors performed all around on the steps, and also on a platform stage built in the pond. Audience also sat on one side of the steps. Unique feature of the production was that the actors also served as Kathavachak (story-tellers). Just by turning over their robes hanging loosely on the shoulders, they became story-tellers and formed a group. Choreography, an important feature of the production, was by the modern dancer-choregrapher, Bharat Sharma and the music was provided by B.V. Karanth.
In Hindi, the late playwright Mohan Rakesh, wrote all his plays in realistic mould. His forte is dramatic language. His Ashadh Ka Ek Din, on the life Sanskrit poet and playwright Kalidas has been widely translated and performed. Another play Adhe Adhure presents a grim picture of a disintegrating middle class family. It is the first important play in Hindi on this problem of the contemporary society. It has been widely performed in Hindi and several other languages.
Senior director Amal Allana, working in Hindi, directs plays in naturalistic idiom with great competence. Her husband Nisar Allana, a stage designer, prefers to mount heavy and elaborate sets for her productions which often obstruct the flow of dramatic action and movements of the actors. Some of her successful and acclaimed productions are - Mahabhoj, a dramatization of the novel of the same name by its author Mannu Bhandari. Brecht's Mother Courage in Hindi adaptation as Himmat Mai, with veteran actor Manohar Singh in the mother's role, is also a significant production of Allana. Her production of King Lear in Hindi translation in a large open space with multiple locales was well acted again by Manohar Singh in the role of King Lear. She seated the audience at one fixed point forcing frontal view of the performance. The audience had to constantly move their neck in different directions to follow the action. It is regrettable that with such exciting experiment with space, she did not take the audience into account.
Sheela Bhatia with her group Delhi Arts Theatre is the only director who writes and directs operas both in Punjabi and Urdu. Some of her better known operas are - Vedi Ki Goonj, Heer Ranjhha, Chann Badlan Da, which is rich in Punjabi folk tunes, Dard Aayega Dabe Paon based on the poetry of famous Urdu poet Faiz, Ameer Khusro and Ghalib Kaun Hai by S.M. Mahandi. In North India with a rich tradition of folk operas like Nautanki, Swang, Bhagat and Khyal, she is the only modern director who took to writing and producing operas.
The senior Delhi-based directors in Hindi theatre, Rajinder Nath and M.K. Raina generally work in naturalistic idiom, though occasionally do experimental works too. Rajinder Nath's Ghasi Ram Kotwal with music, dance and movements was a great success. Dharamvir Bharati's famous play Andha-Yug directed by M.K. Raina at the Purana Quila was most spectacular theatrical piece using vast performance area with ramparts and tiered steps. On the other hand, Bhopal based Bansi Kaul does experimental productions using elements and conventions from folk forms. A most creative stage director, he also often conducts workshops for actors in other linguistic regions. His noted production is Panchali Shapatham, a poetic play by the famous Tamil poet Subramanyam Bharati. The production was the result of a forty-day workshop in Tamil Nadu. This production marked the beginning of the new theatre movement in Tamil Nadu. His another important production is Ala Afsar, a creative adaptation of Gogol's famous play Inspector General by Hindi writer Mudrarakshash. Kaul also did Bhasa's Panchratra with an imaginative set.
In Marathi theatre with Mumbai as its center, there has always been large theatre-going audience. Vijay Tendulkar, Vasant Kanetkar, Jaywant Dalvi, Mahesh Alkunchwar and Satish Aleker are the playwrights who have fed the Marathi theatre with their rich plays. They had also been translated and performed in Hindi and other Indian languages. All of them write in realistic mould. Senior actress director, Vijaya Mehta did pioneering experimental theatre in the sixties and seventies as some other group theatres did it. With large audience there is a strong flourishing commercial theatre in Mumbai. Too counter it, group theatres always did experimental work even when working in naturalistic mould. Alekar's Begum Barwe, a musical in his own direction has been highly acclaimed.
In Bengali theatre, senior actor-director, the late Sombu Mitra and his most accompalished actress wife Tripthi Mitra with their group 'Bahuroopi' discovered Tagore's plays in theatrical terms and mounted quite powerful productions. These productions are - Raktakarbi (Red Olieander), Raja (King of the dark chamber), Visarjan (Sacrifice) and Muktadhara (The River Unbound). They set a new standard in acting specializing in the delivery of dialogues. They also did some contemporary Bengali plays, and adaptation of Ibsen's Doll's House titled as Putulkhela with great success.
Another senior Bengali actor-director, the late Utpal Dutt, committed to Marxist ideology practiced political theatre. He is known for mounting massive productions with lage sets and crowd scenes. Dutt mostly wrote his own plays Angar on the problems of the coal miners was a great success and created sensation with lighting designed by Tapas Sen.
The mines were shown flooded with the workers drowing in them. Another powerful play Kallol (Sound of waves, 1965) concerns with the Bombay Naval Mutiny of 1946. He also wrote a play on the Vietnam war. Dutt remained committed to his philosophy of revolutionary theatre and to his political ideas. He also wrote and directed plays for Jatra, the indigenous popular theatre form.
Bengali playwright and director Badal Sarkar has developed his own aesthetics and philosophy of 'Third Theatre' which seeks maximum intimacy between actor and spectators. He uses simple halls and with benches and stools create varying relationship between actors and spectators. He has written several plays which have been widely performed all over India. His important plays are - Evam Indrajit, dealing with the monotony and emptiness of life of the middle class youth, Baki Itihas, Pagla Ghorha, Sesh Nai etc. He did some of his plays like Dhoma and Michhil in public parks where the performance is surrounded by the audience.
This vibrancy of the contemporary Indian theatre also has great variety in production styles and dramatic forms. In this connection special mention should be made of the directorial work of Deoraj Ankur in creating a new theatrical genre called Kahani Ka Rangmanch. It was in 1975 that Ankur presented three short stories by the reputed Hindi writer Nirmal Verma under a common title Teen Ekant (Three Situations of Loneliness). Since then he has been presented short stories and novels though not in usual dramatized version. What Ankur does is to lift the short story from the printed page and put it on the stage. The presenters of the story are not impersonators and performer as in a dramatic presentation. The spectators get a new experience of the short stories which is different from their reading of them. Ankur does not provide any special costume to the presenters nor or there any scenic means. He gives simple blocking to the presenters for moving, sitting and standing. He often presents two or three stories by different writers under one common title. With the popularity of this new theatrical genre, several young directors have taken to the presentation of short stories without dramatizing them much. There is a great creative stir in Indian theatre which is being practiced in many forms and styles. NSD, New Delhi with its training programme and organization of national theatre festival in the capital has greatly contributed to this stir. For the last ten years are so NSD's regional center at Bangalore has encouraged interaction between theatre of the North India and South India.
Encounter with performance tradition and the rise of a new theatrical form and idiom has led to a great debate in contemporary Indian theatre. Those playwrights and directors who still practice naturalistic theatre denounce these efforts and consider the use of performance elements and conventions from the traditional and folk theatre as misappropriation. The protagonists of the new theatre lay emphasis on return to roots to liberate Indian theatre from its colonial moorings.
However, encounter with rich performance tradition has reversed the process and the theatrical productions have acquired new idiom. Directors now maximize stage sings and symbols and minimize literary sings, thus creating a rich performance text. Traditionally, there has always been great emphasis on creating a performance text rich in staging elements and visual quality. Tradition even provides a separate word for performance text. In Sanskrit, dramatic text is referred to as Kavya or Drishya Kavya, whereas performance text is prayoga. Similarly Jatra of West Bengal is a performance form and pala is a dramatic text. Bhand Pather of Kashmir is dramatic text, whereas Bhand Jashna is performance text.
In this running account of the modern theatre which arose in the mid-nineteenth century under the direct influence of British theatrical tradition causing a breach with the old and living performance tradition of the country, and emergence of 'new' theatre after Independence as part of the process of de-colonisation and quest for identity, three theatrical movements had to be left out to maintain a logical continuity of the narrative. A brief account of these movements is being given here.
Parsi Theatre
Parsi theatre as a commercial venture of rich Parsi community living in Bombay, had all the elements of a hybrid theatre. Beginning in 1853, it continued with great popularity until the '30s and '40s of the 20th century when it could not complete first with the silent cinema and then the talkies. Most of the actors and actresses of Parsi theatre worked in early films, and plays popular in Parsi theatre such as Inder Sabha, Alam Aara, and Khonne Nahaq, (based on Hamlet story) were picturised. Cinema also retained several stage practices and conventions of the Parsi theatre such as abundance of songs and dances.
It is relevant to note that before the beginning of the commercial Parsi theatre, for several years there was an active amateur theatre movement, which performed plays in English, Gujarati and Hindustani. There was a dramatic club which also did Sanskrit plays translated from the English translations done by H.H. Wilson. Amateur theatre activity had created a taste for theatre and built an audience for it. Taking advantage of this, some rich Parsis established theatre companies. They also built theatre halls to sustain commercial theatre activity. Some of these theatre halls were Alphinston Theatre built in 1853; Edward Theatre built in 1860; Gaity Theatre; Empire Theatre built in 1898; Trivoli Theatre, Novelty Theatre, National Theatre, Victoria Theatre, Royal Opera House; Alfred Company; Willingdon Cinema and Hindi Natyashala. Some of the Parsi theatre companies and dramatic clubs established in Bombay were Parsi Natak Mandali; Amateur Dramatic Club; Alphinston Dramatic Club, Parsi Stage Players, Zorostrain Natak Mandali, Zorostrain Dramatic Society; Persian Zorostrain Natak Mandali; Oriental Natak Mandali; Oriental Dramatic Club; Zorostrain Dramatic Club, Zorostrain Club; Parsi Club, Albert Natak Mandali, Shakespeare Natak Mandali; Victorian Natak Mandali, Original Victorian Club, Parsi Victorian Opera Troupe, Hindi Natak Mandali etc. Along with Bombay, in some other cities and large towns also theatrical companies were established. In Rajasthan several princely states also had theatrical companies. Jharhawad and Tonk had famous companies. Other states too sponsored theatrical companies.
There were quite a few playwrights to meet the growing demand of plays and most of them were attached to theatrical companies on a fulltime salary basis. Some playwrights wrote in Urdu, some in Hindi and some preferred Hindustani. Versified dialogues were the special feature of the text, and were delivered with great theatricality. Some of the important playwrights were Abbas Ali Abbas, Zarif Husaini Mian, Raunak Mahmood Mian Banarasi, Munshi Vinayak Prasad Talib, Narayan Prasad 'Betab', Aagha Hashra Kashmiri, Mehandi Hasan, Pandit Radhey Shyam Kathavachak etc. Some of Pandit Radhey Shyam's plays such as Veer Abhimanyu were of literary value and dramatically structured. These plays were also widely performed by early amateur theatre groups. He also wrote Ramayana which is famous as Radhey Shyam Ramayana and is used for textual material for Ramlila plays in Punjab and in some regions of Uttar Pradesh. He along with Agha Hashra and 'Betab' were the most significance playwrights of Parsi theatre. Plays were written of epic and puranic stories, historical and social subjects. Stories of love and sacrifice from various parts of the world were also written about and performed on stage. Plots were freely borrowed and changed from Shakespeare's plays. A significant feature of stage presentation was a running comic story presented after each drop curtain.
These companies were professionally organized and went on a performing tour to distant cities. They also went to neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar) and Malaysia. In these countries their popularity and impact was so great that in Malaysia it has survived in the popular opera Bangsawan which evolved from the Parsi theatre incorporating some elements from indigenous theatre and Western opera.
The southern state and their own counterpart of Parsi commercial theatre called Company Natak, and companies were organized in various languages regions. Karnataka had a famous Gubbi Viranna Company. Veteran director B.V. Karanth of modern theatre worked in this company at the age of fourteen and played the role of Krishna and some female roles. There is still a company in Andhra Pradesh called 'Surabhi', with some 70 members living together as an extended family. The company stays in a village some 45 kilometers from Hyderabad. It is 100 years old and performs in the old style of Company Natak. Eminent Kannada playwright Girish Karnad wrote his famous play Tughlaq structured on the model of Company Natak plays.
Melodrama, suspense and sensational effects were the main ingredients of Parsi theatre. There were painted curtains with conventional scenes- Palace, Fort, River, Mountains and a drop curtain used to indicate the end of an act. Drop curtain was always used at a climactic point in the play with a striking tableau. If there was an enthusiastic audience and continued clapping, the curtain was lifted again and again, and tableau kept frozen. A popular actor with good voice always managed to get "once more" calls from the audience, and he would repeat the song - sometimes there were more than one 'once more' calls. Elaborate sets, gorgeous scenery and trick scenes managed with elaborate stage machinery were always loudly applauded.
For costume and stage décor, Parsi theatre depended on Raja Ravi Verma's calendar art. Ravi Verma began modern painting in India at the beginning of the 20th century using oil color technique and European tradition of painting. He, in turn, was influenced by the Parsi theatre in choosing puranic themes, and also in composing scenes and settings. He also composed tableau influenced by Parsi theatre. His paintings Sita Swayamvar and Sita Bhupravesham look like stage pictures of Parsi theatre.
IPTA
The Two theatre movements, though shortlived, are important in the history of modern Indian theatre. One is the Jan Natya Sangh, popularly known as IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatre Association), which was a cultural forum of the Communist Party of India. It was founded in 1942 in Calcutta. The immediate cause for this was the Bengal Famine, when three million people starved to death due to the negligence of the ruling class.
In 1944 Bijan Bhattacharya, one of the founders of IPTA in Calcutta, wrote a play Nabanna (New Harvest) which dramatized the exploitation of presents by the land owners. Bhattacharya also wrote another play Zabanbandi. Both the plays were directed by actor director Sombhu Mitra. Seeing the popularity of Zabanbandi, it was also performed in Hindi as Antim Abhilasha. The troupe went to Bombay to give performances of these two plays to collect money for famine relief fund. Another item prepared by this Calcutta trope was Bhukha Hai Bengal consisting of songs and dances. Seeing the success of these plays the General Secretary of the Communist Party decided to establish a Central Ballet Troupe in Bombay.
In 1942-43 Udya Shankar Center at Almore, which used to train and develop modern creative dancers, had closed. As a result some dancers like Shanti Vardhan, Narendra Sharma and Shachin Shankar also joined the IPTA Central Troupe along with musician Ravi Shankar. Shanti Vardhan was the main choreographer and leader of the troupe. Two ballets - Bharat Ki Atma (Spirit of India) and Amar Bharat (India Immortal) were prepared having a duration of one hour each. A few songs and dances were also prepared collectively to make it a programme of two hours. Binoy Roy who had a powerful voice was the main singer. The troupe toured all over the country to collect funds for Bengal famine. Filled with missionary zeal, performance was given with great gusto.
New in form and content, these theatrical shows were very popular and made quite a big impact. IPTA movement spread with branches in every state involving theatre artists, dancers, musicians, folk singers and performers. The Party also greatly encouraged popular forms of ballad singing such as 'Burra Katha' of Andhra Pradesh and 'Pawada' of Maharashtra. Popular folk form of Tamasha of Maharashtra with its pungent for humour and satire was also exploited for political purposes.
There were political differences in the Party. And in 1947, the Central Troupe was closed. There are still IPTA groups in some states but they are not of much artistic consequence.
IPTA also made a film Dharti Ke Lal directed by K.A. Abbas. Music was provided by Ravi Shankar and the actors included Sambhu Mitra, Balraj Sahani, Damayanti Sahani and Tripti Bhaduri, who later married Sambhu Mitra and evolved as one of the greatest actresses of this century in the country.
Prithvi Theatre
Parsi theatre had died and there was a total vacuum in the theatre life of the country. It was in such a situation that popular and highly respected film actor Prithvi Raj Kapoor started his Prithvi Theatre with a missionary zeal. Though it was an individual venture, it had the force and effect of a movement. It was started in 1944. Inspired by the ideals of nationalism and communal harmony, he had such plays in his repertoire as Deewar, Pathan, Ghaddar and Ahuti. He also staged Sanskrit Classic Shakuntala. His troupe turned whole of North India and mostly performed in the morning in cinema houses since no theatre halls were available. After the performance he used to move in the audience to collect funds for his theatre. Regretfully, he had to close it down in 1960.
Performance Tradition and Modern Theatre
After the breakdown of Sanskrit classical tradition in North India in the 10th century, there was a reflowering of the of the performance tradition in South India. It was first manifested in Kutiyattam of Kerala, the only surviving performing tradition of Sanskrit drama. Kutiyattam found place in large Vishnu temples performed in Temple theatre called Kuttambalam. Kings provided the patronage to the theatres. Later, in Kerala itself in the 16th century, there developed two highly evolved forms - Krishnattam, an eight-cycle play on the life of Krishna which found place in large Krishna temple of Guruvayur. Along with this, Kathakali with its highly codified performance elements, also developed. Kathakali, too, found patronage from the kings and the temple. Similarly in Karnataka state there evolved in the 17th century Yakshagana which performs stories from the two epics. All these forms retained recitation and story-telling format which have been the roots forms of the Indian performance tradition.
Rise of Modern Theatre
In the mid nineteenth century modern drama and theatre had its beginning in Calcutta, then the seat of British power, under the direct influence of British theatrical tradition. It created great rupture from the performance tradition of more than two thousand years which began with the dialogue hymns of the Rigveda and developed with the two great epics - the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Theatre in Calcutta was for the enjoyment of the British officers, and it was in extension of their club life. Their world of Indian performance tradition was confined to the nautch girls. Theatre activity was generated by the visiting British companies and some amateur theatre activity by British Clubs. Victorian melodramas and farces were presented with heavy sets and sensational lighting. Even the local Bengali intellectuals and aristocracy were neither permitted to visit the theatre, nor allowed to become the members of such clubs.
But Bengal in its Jatra form had vigorous indigenous theatre. Vidya Sunder, dealing with the story of two young lovers, was quite popular among the locals at the time. Regretfully, this was rejected by the intellectuals and the aristocracy on the ground of obscenity in the performance. The intervention on the part of the aristocracy created a rupture between the indigenous Bengali theatre and the modern Bengali drama.
The same pattern was repeated in most other linguistic regions with variation in the intensity of rupture. In some languages, however, dramatics created modern drama on the model of indigenous forms. For instance, in Hindi, Bhartendu Harishchandra was the first dramatist who wrote plays on the model of traditional forms like Rasalila. He also wrote a play Vidya Sunder based on the story popular in Jatra. In another theatrically strong region, Maharashtra, Vishnu Das Bhave wrote first modern Marathi play Sita Swayamvar in 1843 taking inspiration from the indigenous form Yakshagan of Karnataka as prevalent in the Sangli region of Maharashtra.
The first proscenium theatre was built in Calcutta in 1860, forcing frontal view of the performance on the spectators. This totally changed the aesthetics of reception of a theatrical performance and also broke close and intimate relationship between the actors and spectators. Indian audiences had traditionally seen performances often by moving from different angles and levels, having multiple perception of a performance. Sculpture on the other walls of the temples is also meant to be seen by making parikrama (circumambulation) because it is only then that the sculptures make their full dramatic impact on the viewers.
Encounter with Tradition
However, independence in 1947 generated a process of decolonisation of our life, arts and cultural modes. Senior directors like Habib Tanvir in Hindi, Sombhu Mitra in Bengali in the North and B.V. Karanth and K.N. Panikkar in the South, took the lead to have an encounter with the tradition, and to match the intensity with which the modern theatre had arisen with violent rupture from the indigenous theatre. This encounter has given rise to 'new' contemporary theatre with some distinctive features. The emergence of new theatre has been prompted by quest for identity and search for roots. It has also led to the creation of two streams in modern theatre. Several senior directors and playwrights continued to work in naturalistic idiom, though only occasionally that they tried to bring in elements of experiment in their productions.
Music and Movements
With the decline of naturalistic theatre and the emergence of new theatre following the performance practice, music and movements have been brought back. It was Habib Tanvir who in mid-50s in his theatre used music, songs, movements, dance and poetry, which were practically exiled from the naturalistic theatre. His production of Agra Bazar, a play constructed by himself on the poetry and life of popular poet Nazir of Agra was a celebration of life on the stage. He put on the stage a whole Bazar scene with hawkers selling their goods and singing Nazir's poems. Later Tanvir did this play again in local dialect with the folk performers pf Nacha form of his region Chhattisgarh, now a full fledged state, then a part of Madhya Pradesh.
Music has now become so important and integral to the performance that it has acquired the status of a theatre language like that of the dramatic text itself. It has its own channel of communication. From the Natyashastra to the other treatises, all have laid great emphasis on music in drama. In all traditional forms music and movements are integral to the performance.
The primary concern of theatre as a public art is communication, which is opened with the active involvement of spectators with theatre. Theatre music greatly helps in opening the channels and smoothens the flow of communication. In the new theatre, music also helps the spectators in providing multiple perception of performance.
It is a special feature of the new theatre that several directors are also music composers and compose music for their productions in relation to the dramatic text and movements. K.N. Panikkar, B.V. Karanth and Ratan Thiyam are the senior directors who compose music for their productions. Karanth has specialized in theatre music and has a definite philosophy and aesthetics. Often he also composes music for the productions by other directors. One may say that a new class of theatre music composers has emerged. In the credit list for a theatrical production, the name of music composer is given along with other technicians.
In theatrical productions music accentuates and highlights postures and gestures while providing a frame for visual images. Panikkar's actors in his production of Sanskrit plays make entrances and exits in highly stylized gait set to tala and accentuated by the drum. This greatly increases the impact of the entrances and exits of the actors. Both Panikkar and Karanth use swar patterns and bols as music. Karanth also uses alap, chant and humming for musical effect. In new theatre, music rather than being ornamental has become functional and organic.
Along with music, dance like movements are also added. Some directors use the services of dancers and choreographers to work on a scheme of movements and their names are given in the credit list.
Ratan Thiyam's famous play Chakravyuth (1984) which was full of movements and rhythm and was based on Abhimanyu story from the Mahabharata heralded the beginning of the new theatre. While this production made great impact on the audiences used to spoken theatre; it was disapproved by the directors who still practiced realistic theatre. They commented it was ballet and not theatre. They did not realize that Indian tradition did not exclude movements and rhythm from a theatrical production.
Rejection of Proscenium Theatre
One of the several features important for the understanding of the aesthetics of new theatre is the rejection of the proscenium theatre by most of the directors. They use variety of performance spaces to bring about a closer relationship between the actors and spectators, and also provide a new perception of the performance.
The first feeble efforts to liberate the actor from the inhibiting influence of proscenium theatre were made by violating its conventions even while performing within it. These efforts manifested themselves in a variety of ways: in actor's entrances and exits through the auditorium, actors sitting in the auditorium and speaking their lines from there, - and enactment of some of the scenes, such as processional and crowd scenes, in the auditorium.
It is paradoxical that in a theatrical tradition which provides a great variety of spaces with most exciting environmental features, the modern theatre that arose during the mid-nineteenth century chose for itself proscenium theatre. The flexibility of the performance space is utilized for mounting production in different designs. More and more, younger directors are using simple open spaces and the space determines the design of the production.
It was in the west in the early 1960s that the theatre directors revolted against the proscenium theatre in order to experiment with their productions. In proscenium tradition the viewing is fronted and is found to one unitary channel. It was to break this monotony of unilaterity of frontal viewing in proscenium theatre that necessitated architectural changes. This resulted in the creation of thrust stage, arena stage and theatre-in-the round. These varieties of stages brought about closer relationship between the actor and the spectators with possibilities for manipulating the relationship and providing multiple perceptions of performance. The monotony of production design conditional by the proscenium theatre format was thus broken and enabled the directors to shape their productions in relation to the type of stage they used.
Back to the Classics
An important feature of the new theatre is the endeavour to get back to the classics. A symbolic beginning of getting back to the Sanskrit classics was made in 1956 when the first national drama festival was organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi (National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama). It opened with the production of Shakuntala by the great poet and playwright Kalidas in original, performed by the Goa Brahman Sabha of Bombay. They have been doing Sanskrit plays in original. In Maharashtra, with the singing of the shlokas in the style of sangeet natak (musical form), the classics also became part of the Marathi Sangeet Natak, which is a special feature of the Marathi theatre.
The other two theatre groups namely - Sanskritrang of the late Dr. V. Raghavan in Chennai and Prachyavani in Kolkata also did the groups, however, did not arouse the interest of contemporary theatre audience, and their academic style was of no theatrical interest.
From the early 60s, the National School of Drama (NSD) as part of its training programme, took up the production of Sanskrit plays in Hindi translation by the students of the School. These were largely training oriented and the directors tried to reconstruct the ancient style of production on the basis of their understanding of the Natyashastra. Some of the significant productions in this category were by Shanta Gandhi as a member of the staff of the school. Her noted production was that of Madhyam Vyayog by Bhasa, which, though showing semblance of freshness in production, had a text-book character. Since mid 60s, the famous Sanskrit prahasana (farce) - Bhagvadajjukiyam (The Monk and the Courtesan) in Hindi translation has been done by the students of the school by several directors.
But it was Habib Tanvir's production of Mrichchhakatikam (The Toy Cart) by Shudrak in Hindi translation in 1958 as sung and danced performance, which though shocking to the pundits and purists of Sanskrit dramatic tradition, aroused great interest among the theatre audience. It brought to light the potential of Sanskrit classics to become a part of the mainstream theatre activity.
In the second phase of return to the classics which began in early 70s, both the objectives of doing the classics and their production design got completely changed. These productions were done by the senior directors of the contemporary new theatre in various languages and their objective was to make the classics part of contemporary theatre activity. Hence they did not care about the authentic style of production. They wanted to approach and interpret the classics as contemporary directors and for the contemporary audiences.
It is an interesting point to note that the second phase of getting back to the classics was generated by the new theatre movement. What is even of greater interest is that, inter alia, it strengthened new theatre movement, and within the course of less than two decades, the classics became an integral part of the new mainstream theatre. Surprisingly it is Bhasa (2nd Century B.C. - 2nd Century A.D.) who made it possible, and made greatest contribution to this phenomenon of the new theatre. The significant contribution of Bhasa's plays to the development of the new theatre is ironical as his plays were discovered only in 1913. Not only that, his 13 plays dealing with the two epics remained un-performed for nearly half a century as Sanskrit scholars, both Indian and foreign, kept debating and doubting the stageability of this plays. The basic debate veered round to the argument that being close to the epic tradition Bhasa's plays were descriptive, and dramatically not well constructed.
Second important step in the production of Sanskrit drama was K.N. Panikkar's Madhyam Vyayog (The Middle One) by Bhasa in original. He mounted the production at the Kalidasa Akademi's Festival in 1980. Kalidasa Akademi in Ujjain has provided a meaningful forum for the classics for the last more than two decades. Similarly, several directions of the contemporary theatre got attached to the classics and produced plays in different styles. These productions showed marked change from the productions done earlier in realistic mode with elaborate sets. It is said that in of their early festivals, Dr. V. Raghvan, Sanskrit scholar and director, brought his production of Shakuntala from Chennai with a truck load of painted curtains, sets and props.
Panikkar's Madhyam Vyayog was later presented in Delhi in Sri Ram Center's Annual Theatre Festival. It made great impact on the audience and marked the beginning of rediscovery of Bhasa in theatrical terms. Panikkar was followed by Ratan Thiyam who also did successful productions of Urubhangam (Broken Thigh) and Karnabharam (Karna's Burden) in Manipuri putting strong imprint of Manipur's rich performance culture. These productions completely negated and proved meaningless conventional text book productions of Sanskrit plays.
For doing Bhasa's Urubhangam, his emphasis has been on creating powerful visual images with strong movements, music and dance. He has superb ability as a craftsman. His actors make strong and prolonged entrances and exits with dance-like movements. His compositions and groupings are pleasant and powerful. Speech of his actors is almost explosive inspired as it is by Wari-Liba, the story-telling form of Manipur.
New Folkloric Theatre
As a result of encounter with the traditional theatre, several directors following Tanvir's example started working with the mixed group of folk performers and urban actors often using folk legends and community myths. As a result a new theatrical genre called folkloric theatre has emerged.
The credit of eliminating the great divide between modern-urban and folk-rural theatre goes to the senior theatre director, Habib Tanvir. With his new folkloric theatre, working with the performers of Nacha form of his region, Chhattisgarh he blurred the line between these two worlds.
Nacha performers are brilliant singers and dancers, and perform with great gusto. Habib Tanvir produced his famous Charandas Chor based on a folk tale of Rajasthan. Since then he has been working in the same theatrical idiom with a mission. His other well known productions are - Asghar Vazahat's play Jin Lahore Nahi Dekhya Vo Janma Nahin (1970), dealing with the partition of India and creation of Pakistan and Dekh Rahain Hain Na. Tanvir has always been attracted to Sanskrit Classics. He also produced Vishakhdatt's Mudrarakshash in English and Bhavabhuti's Uttar Ramcharit.
B.V. Karanth while working s the Director of Bharat Bhavan's repertory at Bhopal also did Mrichhkatikam and Kalidasa's Malvikagnimitra in the Malavi dialect of the state. He also used other dialects of Madhya Pradesh such as Bundelkhandi and Chhattisgarhi in his other productions. The use of dialects is another interesting feature of the new folkloric theatre.
This trend in the contemp orary theatre received a great boost from the Sangeet Natak Akademi's scheme of granting production assistance to young directors for experimental productions involving interaction with folk and traditional theatre. The power of traditional themes, music and dance used by the directors made these folkloric performances quite popular with the audience. For instance, cutting across linguistic barrier Habib Tanvir's Charandas Chor has been receiving large enthusiastic response from the audience in Kolkata. Akademi's scheme involving new productions and organization of zonal and national festivals of these new productions has resulted in the discovery of whole new generation of young brilliant directors from small cities and towns where they had no exposure to the urban theatre. These festivals also created new and enlarged theatre audience even in small towns.
Some of the directors who were discovered in this process continue to work in folkloric theatre idiom. For instance, after the great success of his Baba Jitto, during one of the festivals organized by the Akademi, Balwant Thakur in Jammu with his group has been quite active. Play-scripts for these groups are often written by the local poets based on traditional myths and legends. Similarly, Waman Kendre in Mumbai has developed into a bright young director after his successful production of Zulva during one of such festivals. Zulva is based on a powerful story concerning the Yellamma community. Jaishri from Bangalore has two presented a brilliant play Lakshapati Rajan Katha by M.S. Nagarajan during one of the Akademi festivals.
As part of folkloric theatre movement, several directors are now working with mixed cast of urban and folk actors. Neelam Man Singh Chaudhary working in Chandigarh has professional Naqqals of Punjab in her group, who had with great virtuosity dance and movements to all her productions and act as female impersonators and work as stage hands too. She did Raja Bharthari, a traditional play, imparting it a contemporary idiom. Later, she did a production of Lorca's Yarma in adaption by Punjab's famous poet Pattar. The production of Yarma was greatly admired for its strong images echoing the agony of Yarma's barrenness. Later, she did Girish Karnad's play Nagmandal (play with a Kobra) based on two Kannada folk tales. With complex weaving of the thematic material, the play moves on several planes. She mounted the production with moving ritualistic images and put a strong imprint of Punjab's rich culture of traditional arts and crafts.
Similarly senior director, Bhanu Bharati, is now working at Udaipur with a group from the Bheel tribal community. His famous production Amar Beej (Immortal Seed) is based on a Bheel legend which has environmental concerns. He created strong images of water, milk and blood by stretching cloth across the stage.
Satish Anand, a senior director in Patna, uses lost folk traditional forms Bidesia and Bidapat nach of his region and performs in his native dialect of Bhojpuri. His Sanskrit classic Mrichhakatikam produced in Hindi translation as Mati-Gadi is a most delightfully sung and danced production of a classic. He has also done dramatized version of famous novel Maila Anchal by Phanishwarnath Renu in the same theatrical idiom.
In the South India, Ramaswamy mixes folk and urban actors in his productions and uses folk forms most effectively as he used Teravattam dancers in the role of the Chorus for his production of Antigone. Playwright and director N. Muttuswamy in Chennai has been working with traditional actors of Terukuttu form of his region, and using their movements has evolved his own system of training of actors. Similarly, senior Tamil director Ramanujam is also working with mixed cast and creativity interacting with folk forms. Young director V. Arumugam, whose talent was discovered in one of these festivals, practices theatre of rich visual images with his own plays Karunchuzhi (Whirlpool) which have minimal text. These directors are credited with bring about a complete change of the character of Tamil theatre, a poor imitation as it was of commercial Tamil cinema dominated by popular film idols like M.G.R. and Shivaji Ganeshan.
In Manipur in the north-east, senior director and playwright Kanhai Lal uses traditional legends and tales providing them contemporary relevance. His Pabet based on a folk tale is a powerful comment on cultural domination of Manipur and a brilliant example of the lyric theatre of images. His wife Savitry is a most accomplished and powerful actress.
Lokendra Arambum with his concerns with the social and political life of Manipur, uses traditional forms while diluting their religious elements. There are several other young directions in Manipur who take inspiration from tradition to suit and enrich their production methods and designs.
Training
While in other performing arts - music and dance - there are age-old traditional systems of training which we expect a musician or a dancer to go through, formal training for a modern actor was not given much of priority. Ours is a performance tradition in which a performer has always received training often within the family and through the process of imitation and inheritance. In several forms of theatre and dance there is a strong input from martial art also towards training a performer.
For instance, Kathakali has evolved a sound system of training with several exercises and movements taken over from Kalari, the martial art of the region, including its massage system to make the body supple.
Systematic training of the traditional performer is actually an Asian phenomenon. Each theatre form has its own system of training suited to its performance design. There is an input of martial art in the training of the performer in Kabuki of Japan and Peking Opera of China to enable the actors to strike strong poses.
With the breakaway from the naturalistic spoken theatre in early 1960's, several directors of the new theatre used yoga, martial arts, circus skills, gymnastics and acrobatics to impart physicality and plasticity to a theatrical performance and evolved their own system of training. These systems are primarily suited to their own production but also have wider applicability. Some of the senior directors who have evolved their own systems of training are : K.N. Panikkar, B.V. Karanth, Ratan Thiyam, Kanhai Lal, Bansi Kaul and N. Muttuswami.
Training exercises of martial arts, though developed for their carry-over-value in combat, have inherent quality to help actor develop stamina, reflex action and performing ability. A whole range of exercises of all the systems of martial arts greatly help the performer in exploring the space, and in developing a strong and intuitive sense of the dynamics of body. Basic skills which include striking, kicking, blocking and movements of attack and defence can help the actor explore space in relation to his body - an ability which is basic to the art of the actor and dancer.
Training through martial art also helps harmonization of physical and psychological impulses and cultivates a sense of rhythm. The movements of martial art in all traditions, being based on animal and bird movements - monkey, elephant, cat, horse, snake, crane - have inherent sense of grace and rhythm. Such a training enables an actor register a strong presence on the stage. Even in stillness he is able, as it were, to charge the space. A Kathakali and Yakshgan dancer-actor, a Chhau dancer etc. have a strong arresting presence, and as they take position on the stage the whole of the performance space seems to get charged.
The training and preparation for the performer has acquired such an importance that for the directors of the new theatre, actor' training and preparatory workshops have become more important than the conventional rehearsals. This is in accordance with the indigenous theatrical tradition. For Kathakali and Yakshagan actors, there is no such thing as rehearsal. What they go through is several years of rigorous training and long hours of preparation before the performance. That is also the case with Japanese forms, Noh and Kabuki. There may be, what may be termed as "run-through" before the performance, but not long rehearsals.
As part of the actor training system, K.N. Panikkar has developed rhythmic exercises taking inspiration from some of the traditional performance modes of his region. Rhythm is provided by actors themselves who chant, recite, sing or perform exercises to the tune of the music of drum.
The use of Charis (gait) is a distinctive feature of Panikkar's production design. He has developed a whole repertoire of Charis which are used for highly stylized entrances, exits, movements, formations and groupings. Panikkar has followed Natyashastra tradition with regard to the training of actors which recognizes special charis, karnas, anaghars and mandalas for actor training.
Like Panikkar, Kanhai Lal has evolved his own theatrical idiom with emphasis on lyrical images. To suit his theatre idiom, he has also evolved a method of training of actors which lays emphasis on improvisation during the rehearsal process. He uses actors' body to create performance text. His whole endeavour, in fact, is to liberate theatre from literature. During the exercise for actors, Kanhai Lal puts emphasis on breathing and physio-psycho impulses. In Manipur because of the strong tradition of martial art, Thang-Ta and complex religious performance forms like Natsankirtan, the body culture is very rich. Kanhai Lal and Ratan Thiyam have exploited the Manipur tradition of rich body culture to train their performers.
SILENCE! THE COURT IS IN SESSION
I generally wish that credit is given where it is due. However, in this 6th May, 2006 performance of the Vijay Tendulkar satire 'Shantata! Court chalu ahe' at Gyan Manch, one wonders if the translator Priya Adarkar does not breathe a sigh of relief at the fact that she is not credited in the posters, tickets or even the brochures. For neither the playwright nor the translator had any apparent intentions of presenting caricatures of different communities rather than hit the collective conscience of the society in this classic social satire. In 2004 during a festival at New York where Padma Bhushan awardee Tendulkar was honoured with performances of his plays, Deepa Gahlot commented "… the mock trial on stage castigates men who attack a woman’s character, when they are not all that blameless.” However, during the course of this performance of the English version of the play, the acerbic tone of the radical is lost to a jester’s histrionics.
“Silence! The Court is in Session” is a drama-within-the-drama. Benare, the lady lead, is unmarried, sexually exploited and has to abort her pregnancy to maintain the facade of honour. In a community play, she is cast in the role of an unmarried young girl accused of an abortion and abused on legal and ethical grounds. During the course of the rehearsal, Benare breaks down because of the striking similarity of the character with her own life. The external appearance gives way to the truth about the life of Benare, the play taking a bow to the stark realities of real life.
Ronaan Roy, the young director of the play belongs to the sudden Youth Theatre Movement that has besieged Kolkata in the last couple of years. While his peers have decided to either produce original plays or to adhere to the scripts with their own interpretations, our young director here has credited Shri Vijay Tendulkar (who won the Sahitya Academy Award for the play, and went on to see the same play being banned by the government!), but has chosen to devise a script far removed from the original. It would have been amusing to see the reaction of Mr Tendulkar at Mrs Kashikar (Prachi Tulsan) settling her pallu , Mr Kashikar (Gaurav Banerjee) pricking his ears , and above all at Karnik (Sumeet Thakur) imitating some one most people in the audience hardly had a clue of. And somewhere in the middle of all this imitation and caricature of different communities, Tendulkar's true intention of the script is lost. When such creative liberties are exercised, they should be advertised as an 'adaptation', rather than crediting a hapless playwright who, most certainly, does not have the vaguest notion of what is being done to his creation.
Ronaan and his cast do manage to entertain the audience though. Purti Simon as Leela Benare had her moment with the last monologue which was indeed a difficult piece. One has to give credit for the honest attempt by this aspiring young actor, especially considering her age and experience. Agnidev Roy as the lawyer is impressive but the accent used by him and the others appeared 'forced', satire often being lost as slapstick in the process.
The light design by Gautam Ghosh makes one wonder why amateur theatre in the city depends so much on follow lights. The auditorium has its own fixed lights which can, perhaps be put to better use. The set, though minimal, is well executed and serves its purpose well. The costumes, too, were well chosen but in Tendulkar's play the characters are from the same Maharashtrian community and distinction in stature and class is not so much the supposed intention as collective social hypocrisy is.
The Red Curtain is one theatre group that believes in the concept of "good theatre for good cause". The revenues earned from the productions are forwarded towards charity, Dignity Foundation being the chosen one this time. For this one reason I wish the Red Curtain would continue to touch many lives as they have been doing over the years. It would not be too much of a digression here to draw attention to Mr Tendulkar’s present tragic state of being as shared by Mr M S Sathu, the famous Set Designer & Director and a champion IPTA (Indian People Theatre Assiciation) personality. After the death of both his children, Mr Tendulkar today is not living a most comfortable, financially secured life in Bombay. One is wistful that like Red Curtain, other theatre and non theatre groups would take positive steps to ensure that proper respect is accorded to these literary stalwarts. Perhaps some theatre group in the city could stage a performance to honour this finest of playwrights. After all, the theatre person’s responsibility does not end with mere staging of plays scripted by such legends.
“Silence! The Court is in Session” is a drama-within-the-drama. Benare, the lady lead, is unmarried, sexually exploited and has to abort her pregnancy to maintain the facade of honour. In a community play, she is cast in the role of an unmarried young girl accused of an abortion and abused on legal and ethical grounds. During the course of the rehearsal, Benare breaks down because of the striking similarity of the character with her own life. The external appearance gives way to the truth about the life of Benare, the play taking a bow to the stark realities of real life.
Ronaan Roy, the young director of the play belongs to the sudden Youth Theatre Movement that has besieged Kolkata in the last couple of years. While his peers have decided to either produce original plays or to adhere to the scripts with their own interpretations, our young director here has credited Shri Vijay Tendulkar (who won the Sahitya Academy Award for the play, and went on to see the same play being banned by the government!), but has chosen to devise a script far removed from the original. It would have been amusing to see the reaction of Mr Tendulkar at Mrs Kashikar (Prachi Tulsan) settling her pallu , Mr Kashikar (Gaurav Banerjee) pricking his ears , and above all at Karnik (Sumeet Thakur) imitating some one most people in the audience hardly had a clue of. And somewhere in the middle of all this imitation and caricature of different communities, Tendulkar's true intention of the script is lost. When such creative liberties are exercised, they should be advertised as an 'adaptation', rather than crediting a hapless playwright who, most certainly, does not have the vaguest notion of what is being done to his creation.
Ronaan and his cast do manage to entertain the audience though. Purti Simon as Leela Benare had her moment with the last monologue which was indeed a difficult piece. One has to give credit for the honest attempt by this aspiring young actor, especially considering her age and experience. Agnidev Roy as the lawyer is impressive but the accent used by him and the others appeared 'forced', satire often being lost as slapstick in the process.
The light design by Gautam Ghosh makes one wonder why amateur theatre in the city depends so much on follow lights. The auditorium has its own fixed lights which can, perhaps be put to better use. The set, though minimal, is well executed and serves its purpose well. The costumes, too, were well chosen but in Tendulkar's play the characters are from the same Maharashtrian community and distinction in stature and class is not so much the supposed intention as collective social hypocrisy is.
The Red Curtain is one theatre group that believes in the concept of "good theatre for good cause". The revenues earned from the productions are forwarded towards charity, Dignity Foundation being the chosen one this time. For this one reason I wish the Red Curtain would continue to touch many lives as they have been doing over the years. It would not be too much of a digression here to draw attention to Mr Tendulkar’s present tragic state of being as shared by Mr M S Sathu, the famous Set Designer & Director and a champion IPTA (Indian People Theatre Assiciation) personality. After the death of both his children, Mr Tendulkar today is not living a most comfortable, financially secured life in Bombay. One is wistful that like Red Curtain, other theatre and non theatre groups would take positive steps to ensure that proper respect is accorded to these literary stalwarts. Perhaps some theatre group in the city could stage a performance to honour this finest of playwrights. After all, the theatre person’s responsibility does not end with mere staging of plays scripted by such legends.
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