Theatre Olympics offering a national stage to indigenous theatrical forms

The heightened interest in vernacular theatre has also spurred research on the various forms - insights from these are further fuelling experimentation and dialogue.

For centuries now, Bhand Pather — a form of vernacular theatre — has been performed in village squares in Jammu and Kashmir. Satire is at the heart of this form, which combines myths and legends with present-day social realities. A vibrant spectacle greets the audience, as performers move to the beats of the mukam and dhol. A long whip, or koodar, is often a central prop, producing the sound of a gunshot and symbolises oppression. 

Now, this age-old form is travelling many miles — to Bhopal, as part of the 8th Theatre Olympics, being hosted in India for the first time by Delhi’s National School of Drama (NSD), across 17 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Agartala, Jaipur and Jammu. Titled Angrez Pather, the performance is directed by Manzoor Ahmed Mir and performed by the Kashmir Performers Collectives in Kashmiri. 

The event will also showcase other folk forms, such as Gondhal, practised in Maharashtra reportedly since the days of Shivaji, and Panduan ke Kadde from Haryana and Rajasthan. Practitioners from villages and towns in and around Nanded, Ujjain and Alwar will present plays in Marathi, Bundeli, Marwari and Mewati as well. Audiences will also get a rare opportunity to see an Odia play, Nian, which features tribal artists from the state.

India has had a rich history of vernacular theatre — from Doddata in Karnataka, Kerala’s Koodiyattam which is firmly rooted in temple traditions, the rustic entertainment of Swang from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and more. A paper by Sayali Indulkar, “Indian Folk Theatre: Instrumental in Independent India’s Socio-Political Transformations” from 2013, traces the changes that theatre has undergone in India — from being performed in courts and at festivals to becoming a part of contemporary theatre practices. She writes: “By the early seventies, playwrights and directors had begun to incorporate folk conventions and ideas into their productions… During this time, theatre activists and playwrights struggled with how to create a modern theatre that would give an expression to an Indian identity, which synthesised the modern with the traditional and the indigenous.” 

Thus, there was Dina Gandhi, who introduced bhavai into modern plays. Habib Tanvir’s Naya Theatre placed the sensibilities of folk artists at the centre of the creative process. “Habib sahib’s plays, such as Charandas Chor, are the finest specimens of this. Ratan Thiyam and KN Panikkar also stand strong as faces of modern vernacular theatre,” says Saurabh Anant of Vihaan Socio Cultural Wellbeing Society, Bhopal. Anant will present Hasyachoodamani in Bundeli at the 8th Theatre Olympics.

The big question is about the future. There are challenges, of course, with villages lacking electricity and auditoriums, making it hard for practitioners to keep these forms alive. There’s an overwhelming need for further state support of art and culture. However, Anant, for one, believes that there are huge possibilities for vernacular theatre, with young theatre artists getting alternate spaces. Ninasam in Heggodu, 350 kilometres from Bengaluru, for instance, is now a nursery for theatre practitioners to learn a blend of the traditional and the contemporary. It’s an interesting time for theatre enthusiasts, with multiple experiments taking place, alternative platforms springing up and many strains of performativeness coming together. 

 “A dialogue is happening between various forms, which is not geographically determined. For instance, Rajendra Panchal, who is based out of Kota and runs the group PeraFin, has worked with Koodiyattam and Mohiniattam alongside the narrative traditions of Rajasthan. Then, there is Deepan Sivaraman, who uses Theyyam, but in a contemporary juxtaposition,” says Anuradha Kapur, former director of NSD. An example of this reconfiguration is Abhilash Pillai’s Talatum, an adaptation of The Tempest, which was performed at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2016 and was an exploration of various subaltern practices such as acrobatics, circus performances and physical theatre, along with Theyyam. “These hybrids are charged with lots of energy,” says Kapur.

This heightened interest in vernacular theatre has also spurred research on the various forms — insights from these are further fuelling experimentation and dialogue. “Academicians and practitioners are looking at how these forms have changed, say, with the arrival of mobile and digital technology. For instance, Kruti R has spent time in Shivamogga (earlier Shimoga) in Karnataka, to research the transformations that take place when Yakshagana performances, which are traditionally night-long affairs, are reduced to two to three hours in the evenings,” says Arundhati Ghosh, executive director, India Foundation for the Arts (IFA). 

Kruti is studying how this change affects the training of actors. Sandesh Bhandare received an IFA grant in 2001 to photo-document the lives of Tamasha performers, which resulted in the book, Tamasha: Ek Rangadi Gammat. He is now returning to the same places in Konkan, Vidarbha and Marathwada to see how the practice has changed further. “Often, these forms are looked upon as heritage. But they are not static — they are constantly changing and adapting, which makes them so interesting,” says Ghosh.

Hasyachoodamani
Director: Saurabh Anant
Group: Vihaan Socio Cultural Wellbeing Society, Bhopal
Language: Bundeli, Hindi
When and where: March 28, Chandigarh
 
The play is inspired by the 11th century-Prahasan, or one-act Sanskrit plays. Hasyachoodamani is a comic take on the dishonesty of those in power. It highlights the failings of human behaviour, which tends to blindly follow others to solve life’s many problems. The process of creating the play started in October 2015, and has been evolving ever since. “We had a script of a Prahasan in Hindi, which seemed to have something missing in it — an element of fun. While looking for a spark, we instinctively moved towards a folk style. Bundeli seemed close to us, personally and as artists, so we chose that,” says director Anant.

Angraiz Paather
(Bhand Pather)
Director: Manzoor Ahmed Mir
Group: Kashmir Performers Collectives, Kashmir
Language: Kashmiri
When and where: March 19, Bhopal
 
This play depicts the oppression of the locals by the British and the love of a Kashmiri for his own language. The performance opens with the tune, “Salgah Maquaam”, followed by a jester ridiculing a British ardali (orderly) for his misdeeds. The latter then questions him in English, which the jester pays no heed to. The ardali ultimately gets tired and stops beating the jester, and finally starts asking questions in Kashmiri.

Jogiyaar Mahabharat
Director: Dinesh Yadav
Group: Swayambhu Foundation (I), Alwar
Language: Mewati, Marwari, Hindi
When and where: March 28, Ahmedabad

The show is based on the musical narrative form of Panduan ke Kadde, practised by the Meos of Haryana and Rajasthan. In its purest form, the narrative style can get monotonic; director Yadav breaks that with sounds of the jogiya sarangi and Manganiyar music. The play opens with a jogi singing about Shiva, followed by a Meo narrator’s couplet about the creator of The Mahabharata. The story takes one through various episodes of the epic poem, such as the conflict between Gandhari and Kunti and the confrontation between Kichaka and Draupadi.

Radha Vilas (Gondhal)
Team leader: Sameer Tadvi
Group: Rudra Entertainment, Nanded
Language: Marathi
When and where: March 10, Agartala
 
Gondhal is a traditional folk-art form from Maharashtra, practised since the 16th century on the occasion of Vastu Shanti and during weddings. Presented in both prose and verse, it narrates stories from The Mahabharata. The performance is peppered with humour, with Sardar, the protagonist, wearing a 70-metre-long garment and presenting lilting melodies. “Radha Vilas is a rare story about Radha and Krishna. Hurt by the complaints to Yashoda about him, Krishna is steeped in gloom and Radha tries to cheer him. The performance ends with Jambhul Aakhyan, which depicts Draupadi developing love for Karna,” says Tadvi. Wearing a 25-kg costume, a male artist enacts the characters.

Nian
Director: Subodh Patnaik
Group: Natya Chetana, Bhubaneswar
Language: Odia
When and where: March 17, Bhopal

The play centres around the lives of Adivasis. Saunri, whose husband is killed in a fake encounter, is sexually exploited and helped only by Maoists. The play, which follows the intimate theatre concept, was created at an intense workshop in 2016, at Natya Gram, which has been Natya Chetana’s lab. “It is based on a case study from a tribal district. The play features many tribal artists,” says Patnaik.