Conventional Theatrics

  Introduction

    Indian theater has it's roots dated back to the history for over two thousand years. Almost at the same time of Aristotle's poetics, ancient India had developed an encyclopedia on theater called "Natyashashtra" ascribed to Bharata which gradually became the basis for Indian theater performances for centuries to come. This means that there was already a rich tradition of performance practice long before such a week appeared. The theory of Rasa in Natyashashtra has influenced Indian traditional theatrics greatly. This was the second phase of the evolution of theater in India which was based on oral tradition.

Traditional Theatrics

 

 An important point needs to be made at the very outset: the word "tradition' carries within it a contradiction charged with repercussions. Traditions remain very much alive in our times. One can find precise point of contact between Tradition and Theater in vital immediacy a quality reflected in its oral transmission, in its constant reference to the present moment and to experience in the present moment.

Ritual Theatrics

 Scholars say that the ritual theater emerged as a result of the Bhakti Movement. Unlike orthodox Hindus, followers of the Bhakti Movement believed that man could approach God directly. Thus, theater becomes the perfect vehicle for communicating the faith through depicting the acts of God both for those performing it and for those witnessing it. Ramleela, Krishnaleela and Rasleela, performed in various North Indian states are excellent example of this kind of theaters.

Rise of the Modern Theatrics

   The  development of Modern Theaters in India may be attributed to change the political set-up in India. The 200 years of the British rule brought the Indian theater into direct contact with the Western Theater; the seeds of the modern theater were sown in the late 18th century , with the consolidation of British power in Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamilnadu. It was the first of the thriving metropolises of Bombay,Calcutta and Madras that London based theater models were introduced in India.


Source: Google and a few personal contacts

Eminent Contributors to the Art

Eminent Contributions to this field of art done by:-

  

  1) Nandini Bannerjee is a first year student in the Ethnomusicology PhD program at Columbia University. Her interests lie in Hindustani Classical music, in the musical works of Rabindranath Tagore and in exploring the effective roles of tradition and modernity in Indian immigrant communities. 

 

Presentation: :"Bauls and the popular music of Bengal"

 Bauls are the wandering musical minstrels of Bengal. Originally from the district of Birbhum (which is now in West Bengal), they epitomize the spirituality and musicality of both the East and West Bengal. The word Baul comes from the Sanskrit word "Vatula", which roughly translates to mad or lashed by the wind. Bauls stem from the history of non-conformism and have upheld music as their religion. In their songs, they explore

the state of disconnect between the earthly souls and the spiritual world and offer a subtle revelation of the spiritual force as an inner God that transcends formal and organized religious doctrines around schools. Every year in the month of Pausha (approximately mid January), the district of Birbhum holds a Baul festival called the Kenduli Mela. The three day open air festival celebrates the musical art of Bauls, which is a peripheral but thriving art in Bengal. Nandini will be presenting some videos taken at the Kenduli Mela and will discuss some of the unifying and contextual similarities between Baul music and Rabindrasangeet (the songs of Tagore).

2) Deepshikha Chatterjee is the costume design faculty at Hunter Collge CUNY where she enjoys teaching a diverse group of students courses in design, costume history, costume technology, and crafts. She has a MFA degree in costume design from FSU. Deepshikha also has been researching and presenting on theater, dance and film costumes from India and Southeast Asia. She recently got a grant from CUNY to study Chhau dance masks and costumes in Purulia, India.

3) Amanda Culp is a student and teaching fellow in the doctoral subcommittee on theater at Columbia University, where she studies classical Sanskrit drama and intercultural dramaturgy. She is a resident dramaturg with NY based company One Year Lease, where her credits include the Killing Room, the Bold Soprano. Most recently, she worked on a production of Vijay Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder at 3LD directed by Nikhil Mehta.

Source: Google and their respective websites

Nautanki Themes

         Themes

     Nautanki, secular to the roots, is a beautiful blend of the Hindu-Muslim folk cultures.   Its language, music, costumes, themes and characters reflect the mixed social set-up.  The austere Muslims who came as conquerors in the eleventh and twelfth centuries slowly adopted the ways of local Hindus, and the Hindus slowly accepted Muslim influence in their arts.  During the long Moghul rule, the arts reflected a synthesis of the two cultures.  The classical Kathak dancers, steeped in Radha-Krishna lore, are dressed in Persian tunics and girdles.  The Rajput miniatures of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries are an expression of the gilded refinement of Moghul courts and Hindu myths and legends.  The Nautanki also manifests the vitality the two cultures.

Religious tales digested in the Nautanki have a secular coloring.  Even in as sacred a play as Raja Harishchandra, ("The Truthful King Harischandra"), when the noble Queen Taramati begs money for the cremation of her dead son, she dances kicking her heels and swinging her lips.  In a religious tale Sita sings of her tragic plight while casting "come-hither" glances.

The Nautankis were mostly written in Personalized Urdu with a mixture of Braj, Hindi and Rajastani.  The courtly language of the Nautankis required the composer to select ornate music and to draw from the classical ragas. the chief regional variants of the classical ragas are bhairavi, bilawal, peelu and kamaj.  It gives the classical melody a directness, an edge, a rural vigor.

Famous Nautankis are: Tippu Sultan, Amsr Singh Rathaur, Prithviraj Chauhan, Rani Durgawati, Panna Dai - all historical plays championing valor, honesty, and faithfulness.  Among the religious ones are: Ram Banwas, Shrawan Kumar, Nala Damayanti, Mordhwaj, Raja Harischandra.  Popular social romances are : Triya Chitra ("Witchery of a Woman"), Reshmi Rumal ("Silken Handkerchief"), Shahi Lakarhara ("The Royal Woodcutter"), Sultana Daku ("Sultana, the woman Bandit"), Siyah Posh("The man in the Black Mask).

The story from which Nautaki takes the name tells of Princess Nautani of Multan, a famous beauty.  In a neighbouring state live two brothers Bhup Singh and Phool Singh.   One day the younger, Phool Singh handsome,adventurous, and rash, returns from hunting and asks his brother's wife to serve him food quickly.  She taunts him saying that he is behaving as if her were the husband of the beautiful Nautanki.  Insulted, he leaves home, vowing that he will not return until he has married Nautanki.  His faithful friend Yashwant Singh accompanies him.  On reaching Multan, they meet the flower woman of the palace and beg her to allow them to stay in her fut.  

Every day this flower woman carries a garland of fresh flowers to the princess.  Phool Singh, expert in the art of floral decoration, offers to weave a garland for the prince if his hostess will cook for him.  The flower woman takes the garland to the princess, who suspects that someone else has prepared it and flies into a rage.  The terrified flower woman explains that her nephew's young wife has been on a short visit and that she had prepared the garland.  The princess commands her to produce the young wife and the flower woman returns to her hut greatly perturbed.  Phool Singh calms her, suggesting that he is in a superb disguise and will not be recognized if he puts on a woman's clothes.  The flower woman takes Phool Singh, disguised as a beautiful woman, to the princess, who is stuck by his beauty.  She offers her friendship and insists that Phool singh stay in her chamber.  He agrees.  At night the princess sighs that if Phool Singh was a man, she would marry him.  Phool Singh asks her to close her eyes, meditate and concentrate on the household deity and invoke her blessings to turn one of them into a man.  This the princess does, and when she opens her eyes, she finds that her friend has turned into a man.  A love scene follows.  In the morning the palace maid reports the matter to the king, who orders the young man arrested and killed.  Nautanki, carrying a sword and cup of poison, reaches the spot where Phool Singh is awaiting death.  She drives off the executioners and challenges her father.  The king, deeply touched, agrees to her marriage with Phool Singh.

Nautanki stories are full of noble bandits, brave fighters and truthful lovers.They emphasize courage, nobility and gallantry.  Events take place at fast pace.  Gods, wizards and nymphs have free social intercourse with Kings, palace maids, robbers and landlords creating a fanciful world with intense appeal. 

Source: Google, Rangvarta magazine

   

Nautanki: the famous personalities

                 Nautanki is generally connected to cheap thrills and crud entertainment and is rarely heard of these days. But there are few who still believe that Nautnaki is a theatrical performance with songs and dance numbers, originated in Kanpur, which played an important role in influencing people during the independence struggle to join the freedom movement against the British.

Eventually, over time and as more modern forms of entertainment became available, the art form is reduced to villages and that too with hardly anyone wanting to perform in it. Around the latter half of the 19^th century, Nautanki was also known as Svang. Bhagat, a 400 years old operatic drama preceded this Nautanki. Ain-i-Akbari also mentions Nautanki in its pages.

In the early 1930s, a young girl began acting in Nautanki and rose to fame. Her name was Gulab Bai and she had sort of revolutionized the Nautanki on her time. When she died in 1996, she was widely hailed as the uncrowned queen of Nautanki and even now, her name remains in the Nautanki Hall of Fame. Before her time, young boys played the roles of heroines, side heroines and other secondary female characters. Gulab Bai entered a male dominated industry and made her mark. She breathed in the essence of the Nautanki dramas, gifted her own aura and came to be known as Gulaab Jaan. By the mid 1930s, Gulaab was famous as Gulab Jaan.

Giriraj Prasad was another outstanding Nautanki performer. He was born in Kama village. Bharatpour district (Rajasthan) in 1920. He had learnt Nautanki in the Hathras gharana from Giriraj Prasad Parashar and Natharam Gaud. He was only 16 years of age when he became a professional and joined the company of Guad. Giriraj Prasad became highly skilled in folk and classical music and was highly respected for as an unusual mixture of strength and sweetness in his voice. He was second to Lavani singing.

Giriraj Prasad has a distinctive style of rendering the chaubola meter, imitated by younger performers. He made efforts to revive and vitalize the form and thereby, became the director of a troupe set up by the Braj Kala Kendra at Hathras. He also participated in the Nautanki-based production of Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena’s Bakri or ‘she goat’ in 1973 at the National School of Drama.

Some of the other equally nice performers are Gokul Korea, Ghasso, Ram Swarup Sharma, Manohar Lal Sharma, Chunnilal and Krishna Kumari. 

In the last four decades, some new Nautankis are taking place which involves contemporary social messages such as health, HIV/AIDS, women’s empowerment, dowry, immigration and family planning. But these are comparatively short performances approximately of 2 hours. This provides the audience to break their monotonous daily routine and enjoy themselves for a break.

                   Source: Internet and a few antique books….

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  Nautanki as Tamasha

Nautanki is more of Tamasha ,as in filmy now. Incorporation of the filmy factor , item songs and the Bollywood touch is now popular. Main target is “profit” thus by mass appeal and attracting  audience the groups or team who does “Nautanki” earn their money. General audiences cults for entertainment ; where they can enjoy get refreshments and laugh . thus the three elements required in to catch the audience mind and grab hold the crowd is “Entertainment” Entertainment” Entertainment”.

Hence keeping the “key ingredient ” intact Nautanki performers are adding up the masala of item songs , romantic gestures loud music and thus serving the platter with full enthusiasm and entertainment. Nautanki , therefore found new audiences even in metropolitan cities as a rick folk form with connections of Bollywood , in academic institutions as a subject of research into popular culture. In its home-ground , the towns and mofussil areas and the badlands of Bihar and uttar Pradesh. Nautanki is often reduced to filmy caricature .

                      The word Nautanki today has become a generic term for  “cheap entertainment“.Though the music played during the show of a nautanki is very much complex and is being learnt and mastered through practices of years.Few own meters like doha , behra-e-e-tabeel and chaubola. These complex music not only require learning but also the “listening and understanding with keen interest .”

The Hathras format of Nautanki is more slow paced and musical , while Kanpur has a more racy, Robustly dramatic and dialog heavy style that borrowed heavily from Parsi theater. The most fierce fan following in mid 1950 was grabbed by the travelling Nautankis.

Both the need of keeping the traditional culture of Nautanki alive and getting more new audiences for Nautanki,are required to help nautanki from extinction By adhering the originality and versatility of spectrum.

 sources: google, the Hindu

Nautanki: the famous places

Nautanki and its places..

                 Nautanki is a folk culture that is now clear to us by the previous posts ,we now know the history the origin of this culture.In this post we will be knowing the places from where it began rather from where “Nautanki” walked and to what destination it reached and how much did it travelled. There are several names given to “Nautanki ” as it travelled through several states in India as per their culture and tradition.Though the sole purpose remains the same viz .providing entertainment to the masses.Jatra, Bhaavai and Tamasha are the few names given to “Nautanki”..

‘Jatra’ for westbengal

                      In Eastern India “Nautanki” is termed as “Yatra” or “Jatra” in West Bengal.Jatra or Yatra is performed in Assam, Orissa and parts of WestBengal. The word ‘Yatra’ actually means a ‘Journey’ or ‘Pilgrimage’ from one place to another.Jatra is an open space performance ,Ritualistic theater based on the life of Lord Krishna and the mysthological plays about Ramayana and Mahabharata. In Bengal the ‘Palas’. A different forms of yatra known as Sahi Yatra is being held on alleys and bylanes of Puri.’ Jatra’competitions are held on Durga Puja festival .

In Rajasthan and Gujrat as ‘Bhavai’:

                        Asait Thakore or Ashram Maharaja a Brahmin , who used to live in the village called Unjha in Gujrat found this popular theatrical performance .During Navaratri this form of ‘Nautanki’ was performed later on this art form became popular and got converted to an entertainment for the common people. While the ‘Bhavai’ of Rajasthan is more musical and less theatrical when compared th Gujrat.

‘Tamasha’ for Maharasthra :

               Tamasha evolved from the early forms of entertainments in Maharasthra.It was for humor and eroticism. It is one of the rare forms of entertainment where women play feminine characters. Naughty episodes of Krishna Leela are being played out in the opening sequence of the play. The Lavani songs which were sung on the background were equally delightfully vulgar and erotic.

sources: google

Nautanki: Is it a dying art now?

With the advent of commercial big-banner movies and web series, the traditional theater and drama forms are slowly  dying out and the number of practitioners of such art is dwindling. Folk dramas only remain in the remotest parts of the country.

However, all is not lost. To rescue the 'Nautanki' culture from extinction, a renowned Rasleela and Nautanki artist, Pandit Ramdayal Sharma is working hard to create awareness among the younger generations. this sexagenarian conducts workshops of theater and drama across India and abroad.

His contribution did not go unnoticed. He has won several accolades for his charitable work towards traditional theater. He has won several awards for his excellent work in this field. Pandit Sharma has trained several Hindi film celebrities. 

Pandit Sharma belongs to the famous Swami-Khera Gharana of Rasleela, Swang and Nautanki. He is the current Guru of the Gharana. He has trained himself from Brij Kala Kendra of Mathura. All the famous plays such as 'Subah ka Bhula", "Beti ka Byah', 'Sri Krishna Sudama', 'Roti Kapara Ghar', etc are produced under Pandit Sharma's Nautanki productions.

Howveer, this Nautanki genre of traditional Indian theater always gets neglected by the Government of India. He says, "Nautnaki artists are respected in the foreign countries but in India nobody cares for the Nautanki artists, who are dying out hunger in the villages and dehats. Government helps only selected people in the name of Nautanki." 

With the advent of westernization, there is a bit of skimpiness going on in the Nautanki portfolios. Pandit Sharma condemns such addition and accuses some directors for adding vulgarity to these folk theaters in order to earn profit. He worriedly shares, "If the Government will not take some serious decisions about saving the future of Nautanki and other Indian art forms then the Indian artists will be compelled to leave the profession and look out for something else to fulfill their basic needs." 

If you are interested in knowing more about Pandit Sharma, click here.

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NAUTANKI: a performance with a bit of exaggeration

             Nautanki

       “All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed”

-          Sean O’ Casey

The term ’Nautanki’ per se evokes a sense of melodramatic presence in our minds. As soon we see it or someone says it, it triggers a series of mimicry and cacophonic slideshow within our minds.   However, putting the feelings aside, if we must define it:

Nautanki has acquired huge popularity in the folk theatre performances among the common masses of South Asia especially around Northern India. Before the Hindi film industry came into being, Nautanki was the only source of entertainment in the country of northern India. There was a time when the common people made plans for a Nautanki show with friends and family, booked the tickets in advance and enjoyed immensely. Nautanki had rich musical compositions and amusing story-lines and hold a strong sway over rural people's imagination. Even after the spread of mass media (that is the age of television and video cassettes) a crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 can still be seen at the top Nautanki performances.

The roots of Nautanki lie in the Saangit, Bhagat, and Swang theatre traditions of Northern India. In fact, one of the Saangit performances named “Saangit Rani Nautanki Ka” enthralled the audience so much that the entire genre was nicknamed as Nautanki. Huge stages were erected and people gathered around the seats very early, ready to take their seats. Only two minutes into the performance and people started cheering up the dramatis-personae, standing up from their allotted seats. In fact, the aspect of viewing the show sitting silently was considered a major failure for the performance.

Making up the traditional story-lines was no easy task. Earlier, the Nautanki plays were based on mythology and folk tales and rarely on contemporary heroes. The traditionally popular plays such as Satya-Harischandra and Bhakt Moradhwaj are adapted from mythological themes. Indal Haran and Puranmal  originates from folklore. Sultan Daku , Jalianwala Bagh and Amar sing Rathore are few ‘Nautankis’ who have found an enigmatic place in the hearts of the common masses as it dealt with the oppression of the Feudal landlords and the British against the Indians , around the earlier 20^th Century.

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