Retrospective Modern Indian Theatre

Retrospective of Modern Indian Theatre: New Delhi, 1989Author(s): Induja AwasthiSource: TDR (1988-), Vol. 34, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 183-189Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1146081 .Accessed: 10/06/2013 06:46

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Retrospective of Modern Indian Theatre

New Delhi, 1989

Induja Awasthi

The Nehru Shatabdi Natya Samaroha (Nehru Centenary Theatre Fes- tival) held in New Delhi from 3-17 September 1989 was a unique festival organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama). It was the first time a festival of such a scale was organized. The festival was a befitting tribute by the Akademi to the

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Contact: Chris Arnold (212) 382-2790 or, Yvonne Joyner (Yale) (203) 432-1515

References Augstein, Rudolf 1988 "Politiker sollten ihre Woerte waegen" (Politicians should weigh their

words). Der Spiegel, 24 October:20-24. Beliakov, Vladimir 1988 "Soviets to Produce Play in Tallahassee with FSU." The Florida Flam-

beau, 4 November:5.

Connolly, Olga Asal 1989 "Soviet and American Cultures Blend Well in Mainstage's Roof." The

Florida Flambeau, 7 April:I3. Galin, Aleksandr 1989 Interview with author. Tallahassee, Florida, 23 March.

Hinson, Mark 1989 "FSU Mainstage Nails One with 'The Roof.' " The Tallahassee

Democrat, 7 April, sec. D:2.

Hyman, Ann 1989 "Twisted Characters Expound in Soviet Play." The Florida Times-

Union, ii April, sec. C:I. Rule, Sheila 1989 "Governments, Censorship and the Arts." The New York Times, 13

August, sec. 2:1, 6.

Salisbury, Stephan 1989 "The Awakening." The Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 April, sec. F:I, 5.

Rebecca Rovit, dramaturg for the Florida State University production of The Roof, received her PhD in theatre from that university in 1989. She is currently Assistant Professor of Theatre History and Literature at Illinois State University.


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memory ofJawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern India. Nehru's pas- sion for theatre and the arts is well known. It was Nehru's idea which led to the establishment of the three national Akademies of Performing Arts, Fine Arts, and Letters. The festival was planned as a retrospective of modern Indian theatre covering the gamut of the last 40 years and offering glimpses of its development in various Indian languages. The organizers were conscious of the fact that the word "retrospective" could not be used in the same way in theatre as in film and painting. The idea behind calling the festival a retrospective was to present landmark plays and productions of the last 40 years. However, the enthusiastic participation by all the directors, both of the older and the new generation, justified the nature of the festival. There was also great response from the audience.

As was inherent in the idea of retrospective, there were voices of dissent in the form of nonparticipation. Some important directors of the period could not participate, and some of the landmark productions remained unrepresented in the festival. Badal Sircar, a major Bengali playwright and director, did not agree with the idea of retrospective and also refused to allow his play Evam Indrajit (And Indrajit) to be presented in Hindi, even though its first significant production was in Hindi directed by Shyam- anand Jalan, a senior director-actor of Hindi theatre. E. Alkazi, one of the most senior and major directors, could not find time to participate in the festival. Sombhu Mitra, one of the greatest actors of modern Indian theatre and a director of Bengali theatre, could not participate due to poor health. Thus, the festival was deprived of outstanding productions like Tughalaq (the name of the hero, a I4th-century sultan of Delhi) and Andha-yug (Blind Age) by Alkazi, Tagore's Raktakarabi (Red Oleanders), and Raja (King of the Dark Chamber) by Mitra. Tripti Mitra, the greatest actress of our times, died in 1989.

Punjabi opera director Sheila Bhatia's Heer Ranjha (the names of the heroine and hero), based on a famous love legend of Punjab, could not be presented due to the problem of finding young opera singers; and Jasma Odan by Shanta Gandhi, based on a Gujarati folk play, could not be produced because of the difficulty of organizing a new cast. The professional National School of Drama Repertory, which has made significant contri- bution to the growth of Hindi theatre, also did not participate for reasons not known.

Despite these lacks, the festival had a large enthusiastic audience and gave different experiences to different kinds of audiences. For the older people most of the performances were revisits or new interpretations of "old" plays by "old" directors. For the young theatre audiences, the festival was a thrilling backward journey in Indian theatre history. It was in this sense that the word retrospective was apt, and perhaps, herein lay the success of the festival. The festival brought together well-known playwrights, directors, and actors among whom 23 were recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi National Award. Besides the participating artists, a large number of actors, directors, theatre critics, and theatre students from all over the country attended.

There was great range and variety, both in the form and structure of plays and production styles. Some represented the realistic mode and some, taking inspiration from folk forms, used music, movement, and mime and belonged to the new movement ofnonrealistic theatre. From the oldest, Nabanna, first staged in 1944, to Chakravyuha, first produced in 1984, the festival included some of the best plays such as Karnad's Haya- vadana, Tendulkar's Ghashiram Kotwal, and Rakesh's Adhe-Adhure, which


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lo. V/ijay Tendulkar's Ghashiram Kotwal (Gashiram, the Chief of Police), directed by abbar Patel. (Photo courtesy of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi)

along with Sircar's plays, have been translated and performed in many Indian languages forming a kind of national repertory. This kind of gather- ing had never happened in modern Indian theatre during the last century.

The festival opened with Kallol, Bengali, written and directed by Utpal Dutt, senior major actor-director of Bengali theatre and founder of the People's Little Theatre, Calcutta. As a Marxist, Dutt has been practicing political theatre for all these years. His productions are marked for their spectacular quality and very theatrical groupings and compositions. He is an actor of great range, excelling in subtle characterization. Kallol is about the rebellion of Indian Navy men of the ship Khyber against their British officers. The play, first presented in 1965, had a run of 850 shows. Now it seemed out of context because of its strong topical concern.

Another important revival was Agra Bazar, Urdu, written and directed by Habib Tanvir, a senior director in Hindi theatre, who has been working with folk performers of the Chhattisgarha region of Madhya Pradesh for more than three decades. One of his famous productions, Charandas Chor (Charandas, the Thief), based on a folk tale, has been performed in several countries abroad with great acclaim. His theatre work has a strong folk idiom and echoes the whole culture of a people. Agra Bazar is woven round the poetry of Nazir Akbarabadi, who wrote for and about common people; his poems were sung by vendors and itinerant performers in festivals and fairs. First presented in 1954 at a time when the realistic theatre was at its peak, Agra Bazar gave a most refreshing experience and brought back poetry, music, and a sense of celebration to theatre. The production is delightful with a free flow of songs and scenes of fairs and festivals in which Nazir's world comes alive.

Andha-Yug (Blind Age) in Hindi by Dharmvir Bharati is a Hindi play of the mid-'5os in powerful blank verse, hailed as a major work of new poetry. It deals with the events of the 18th and last day of the Great War, the theme of the Indian epic, Mahabharata. This most innovative treatment of the theme echoes the aftermath of World War II, and that explains the title of the play. After depicting the destruction of two families and the total collapse of all moral and ethical values, the play reaches its climax in Gandhari's curse to Krishna for his unethical support of the Pandavas, and


I86 Currents the fury of revenge of Ashwatthama and his brutal killing of the Pandava princes in their sleep. Thus, Ashwatthama becomes the central character and according to the author "the moral dilemma of the Mahabharata."

Andha- Yug was directed by Satydev Dubey, who first directed it in 1962. Later, E. Alkazi directed it in 1963 in the ruins of a 14th-century fort in New Delhi with great spectacular effect. This was the first time that an archaeological site was used for staging a play dealing with the epic theme. Andha-Yug, because of its theme, epic characters, and the grandeur of its verse, loses its effect when presented realistically in a proscenium theatre. However, the powerful acting by the reputed stage and film actor, Naseeruddin Shah as Ashwatthama carried the production through.

In the category of stylized productions, using elements from folk and traditional forms, four productions can be mentioned. Representing the "theatre of roots" movement are: Hayavadana, Ghashiram Kotwal, Uru- bhangam, and Chakravyuha, each representing a distinctive idiom and style. Hayavadan, Kannada, by Girish Karnad was directed by B.V. Karanth, who had first directed it in 1972 in Hindi. Both this play and its production by Karanth mark a significant point in the "theatre of roots" movement of the last two decades [see Suresh Awasthi's " 'Theatre of Roots': Encounter with Tradition" in vol. 33, no. 4 (TI24)]. Hayavadana is based on a story from Vaital Pachchisi (Twenty-Five Fables), which inspired Thomas Mann to write his famous Transposed Heads. Karnad used the reworking of the fable by Mann and acknowledged it. The play deals with the idea of incompleteness and the struggle for becoming complete. As a director, Karanth is known for a very creative use of music and stylized movements. His productions of Macbeth and some of the Sanskrit classics in Hindi translation are marked for their most innovative and bold treatment and succeed in imparting contemporaneity to classics.

Ghashiram Kotwal (Ghashiram, the Chief of Police), Marathi, by Vijay Tendulkar, set in 18th-century Pune in Maharashtra, deals with a lecherous Maratha Chieftain, Nann Phadnavis, and the social decadence of his times. Tendulkar evolves a new dramatic form by using prose dialog, verse, songs, and dances inspired by several popular folk forms of Maharashtra. The production beautifully fuses these traditions with modern techniques and gives a most delightful theatre. Mohan Agashe as Nana Phadnavis does superb acting. The production, now in its 13th year, has been highly acclaimed in the USA, UK, and other countries.

Urubhangam (The Broken Thigh), a Sanskrit classic by Bhasa (2nd century BCE?) directed by K.N. Panikkar, is most significant in the context of the search for a suitable mode of production for Sanskrit plays. Taking inspiration from the classical theatrical tradition in Kerala in forms like kutiyattam and kathakali, Panikkar has succeeded in evolving an artistically most satis- fying style of production. The play deals with the events of the last day of the great Mahabharata war and the death of the Kaurava hero, Duryo- dhana. Panikkar imparts a vivid sense of theatre to the play by dramatizing the descriptions by the soldiers of the devastation caused by the war. At the time of Duryodhana's death, Panikkar uses Teyyam, a ritualistic form of Kerala and shows two Duryodhanas-the wounded and dying Duryo- dhana (Du-bad) and his Teyyam or conscience Suyodhana (Su-good), who pacifies the enraged Baldeva. This is a most imaginative use of a traditional genre and helps in bringing out the inner meaning of the play. Panikkar uses music and movements to illuminate the text. He has done some other plays by Bhasa-he is the only contemporary director who does Sanskrit classics in the original. His work is updating the Natya- shastra tradition.


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11. Bhasa's Urubhan- gham (The Broken Thigh), directed by K.N. Panikkar. (Photo courtesy of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi)

Chakravyuha (Army Formation), Manipuri, written and directed by Ratan Thiyam, deals with an episode from the Mahabharata, the killing of the young Pandava hero, Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, by seven Kaurava warriors. The play-script was evolved in collaboration with the actors during an extended workshop which included reading the epics and train- ing the actors in traditional performing techniques and martial arts. Actors were also involved in designing masks, costumes, and properties. The sequence in which Abhimanyu learns martial skills while still in his mother's womb, when Arjuna narrates to his wife the technique to enter the army formation, is presented most effectively. Thiyam uses highly stylized movements; fighting sequences for instance are choreographed using movements of Thang-Ta, a martial art of Manipur. The production was highly acclaimed in England, where in 1987 it received the Fringe Firsts Award at the Commonwealth Festival, Edinburgh.

Some of the important productions in the realistic mode were: Adhe- Adhure, Wada Chirebandi, and Guinea Pig. Adhe-Adhure (halfway house), Hindi, by the late Mohan Rakesh, deals with the disintegration and total collapse of all values of a middle-class family and the man-woman conflict arising from the contradictions of nature and family circumstances. It was finely acted in the lead role by the director, Shyamanand Jalan, who con- vincingly portrayed five "mantypes" representing different traits of the same person as conceived by the playwright. The female lead role was played by the dancer-actress, Chetna. Both as actor and as director, Jalan has always believed in the power of the word in theatre, and he proves his conviction in this production. Wada Chirebandi (Old Stone Mansion), Marathi, by Mahesh Elkunchwar, a noted and prolific playwright, directed by Vijaya Mehta, an outstanding actress of Marathi theatre, succeeded in creating the Chekhovian rhythms of the play. The play deals with the disintegration of an ancestral home, the high caste joint family of the Deshpandes. The production is marked by sensitive characterization and remarkable acting by Vijaya Mehta as Aai, the mother. Guinea pig, Hindi, directed by Rajinder Nath is a translation of Rajarakta, a Bengali play by Monit Bandyopandhyaya. The play deals with the theme of the everchang- ing face of a tyrant and the rebellion by the youth to oust him. The production with a simple set, imaginative lighting, and fine acting, espe- cially by Kulbhushan Kharbanda, a well-known actor of the art cinema, was widely appreciated.


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12. Mahesh Elkunchwar's Wada Chirebandi (Old Stone Mansion), directed by Vijaya Mehta, herself a noted actress of Marathi theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi)

In order to facilitate informal contact among theatre artists and cul- tivated spectators, the Akademi set up a Festival Centre on the grounds of its building complex, Rabindra Bhavan. Apart from informal meetings and discussions over a cup of tea, every evening the video of that after- noon's performance was shown for the benefit of those who could not get entry passes for the live performance. The Documentation Unit of the Akademi videotaped performances, seminar sessions, and interviews, all made available for viewing during the course of the festival. This material will now be available at the Akademi for study and research purposes. Never before has modern theatre been documented so comprehensively.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations collaborated with the Akademi and arranged to bring foreign theatre delegates to attend the festival and to participate in the three-day seminar. There were 24 delegates from the UK, USA, USSR, Australia, Yugoslavia, Japan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. A large number of Indian directors, actors, theatre critics, playwrights, and directors were also invited. The seminar discussed themes such as traditional forms in contemporary theatre, theatre and the media, influence of colonial rule and the search for roots, and provided a most meaningful historical perspective to the festival. Most lively discus- sion related to the theme of "new" theatre evolving as a result of its encounter with tradition. It was felt that the "theatre of roots" with its blending of song, music, dance, movement, and with a contemporary thematic content, was a significant feature of the post-Independence Indian theatre. When employed artistically as integral parts of the production design, traditional forms abounding in music, movements, and stylization heightened the impact of the performances. The foreign delegates ex- pressed their reactions to the performances which showed their apprecia- tion and understanding of the Indian theatre scene. The participation of foreign delegates is expected to help promote a greater theatrical exchange. Most of the foreign delegates, on their return, have written their impres- sions of the festival, and this has created a wider awareness of contemporary Indian theatre.


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Along with the performances and the seminar, several allied events were held as part of the festival. An exhibition of rare photographs of significant productions and of eminent theatre personalities was mounted in the foyer of the auditorium. A special publication, Contemporary Indian Theatre, car- ries interviews with and studies of the playwrights and directors represented in the festival. Biographies of playwrights and directors include play publication and production dates.

The festival demonstrated the variety and the vitality of the contemporary Indian theatre, and marked an unprecedented celebration of theatre work on a pan-Indian scale.

Induja Awasthi, professor at Delhi University, specializes in Hindi literature and Indian performance, both modern and traditional.


Article Contentsp. 183p. 184p. 185p. 186p. 187p. 188p. 189

Issue Table of ContentsTDR (1988-), Vol. 34, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 1-200Front Matter [pp. 1-6]TDR CommentAfter the Fall of the Wall [pp. 7-9]Signing the Purity Oath [pp. 9-10]

In MemoryMeeting Beckett [pp. 11-12]

Letters, Etc.Black Theatre-Where the Funding Isn't [pp. 13-15]No Secret Politics in the U. S.? [pp. 15-16]Postcolonial Imperialism? [pp. 16-19]ITItems [pp. 20-21]Etc. [pp. 22]Corrections for Peixoto, Martin, Epstein and Schechner [pp. 22-23]

Augusto BoalInvisible Theatre: Liege, Belgium, 1978 [pp. 24-34]The Cop in the Head: Three Hypotheses [pp. 35-42]Boal at NYU: A Workshop and Its Aftermath [pp. 43-49]Boal in Brazil, France, the USA: An Interview with Augusto Boal [pp. 50-65]Theatre of the Oppressed Workshops with Women: An Interview with Augusto Boal [pp. 66-76]Activism, Therapy, or Nostalgia? Theatre of the Oppressed in NYC [pp. 77-83]Selected Bibliography on Augusto Boal [pp. 84-87]

CzechoslovakiaWithout Theatre, the Czechoslovak Revolution Could Not Have Been Won [pp. 88-96]On Stage with the Velvet Revolution [pp. 97-108]

Clearing Space: AIDS Theatre in Atlanta [pp. 109-128]Charlie MorrowCharlie Morrow Alarums and Excursions [pp. 129-147]Making Waves: An Interview with Charlie Morrow [pp. 148-158]Hefty Hefty Hefty-Wimpy Wimpy Wimpy: An Interview with Charlie Morrow [pp. 159-161]

CurrentsOpen Doors for the International Theatre School of Latin America and the Caribbean [pp. 162-176]Crossing Cultures: Aleksandr Galin's "The Roof" at Florida State University [pp. 176-183]Retrospective of Modern Indian Theatre: New Delhi, 1989 [pp. 183-189]

Back Matter [pp. 190-200]

Retrospective Modern Indian Theatre

Documents

Transcript of Retrospective Modern Indian Theatre