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   INDIA   Chandradasan

FOCUS
India is a large country - 25 different states with more than 50 languages and an equal number of ethnic cultures, sub-cultures and communities that are quite different and distinct from each other. It is the traditional culture and the racial characteristics of any ethnic unit that decides its performance custom. So, the wide variety of performance traditions in India is not astonishing. Sometimes these are mutually collaborative and stretch from one state or area to the other. The British rule and the eventual colonization attempted to homogenize and to create a common, modern idiom throughout Indian theatre. But the colonizer had not reached to each and every part of India due to the lack and difficulty of transportation, lack of interest in many of the subcultures since they were not economically appealing to business and probably due to neglect of more primitive communities and tribes, as they were unsophisticated and ugly as Caliban to have a dialogue with! Anyway, many of these tribal ethnicities remained uneducated and hence unadulterated and include those of North Eastern states like Manipur, Missoram, Nagaland and even the very central hilly interiors like Bastar, Chathisgad, etc.

It is important to know that India has an exceptionally old tradition of performance, a live tradition with a 5000-8000-year-old continuity. We had quite poetic and literal playwriting in Kalidasa (B.C.2500) and dramatic, production oriented plays in Bhasa (B.C. 3000). The very famous theatre manual Natyasastram is believed to have been compiled by Bharatha somewhere around B.C.3000 or before.

Besides the proper dramas, we have a variety of dramatic and theatrical forms in India. They include narrative dramatic compositions, ritual theatre, classical theatre, and many folk narratives. All these forms are  included in the broad spectrum of ‘Indian theatre’, along with  experimental, amateur, and commercial theatre activities. Many contemporary productions depend on  folk and classical performance traditions to evolve the design, narrative structure, form, technique, and approach to acting and other aspects. I feel that I would include these live and vibrant theatre forms also in my reports to Scene4.

At the outset I must tell you that, I may not be able to cover a pan-Indian spectrum of performances. I live in Kerala, the extreme Southwest strip of India. Since I teach in a college in Kochi, I have to be in my home city for most days of the calendar. My reports will be covering only those plays and productions that I happen to see and am able to know personally, and will focus on the performances in Kerala and South India. I will be able to comment occasionally on the theatre of the North and Northeast of India as and when I travel out to participate in some theater festivals or when those groups come down here.

And I will focus more on theatre and other live performances than on film and TV. August saw the introduction of one more satellite cable channel in Malayalam – the Kairali channel- making the total four. The already existing ones are Doordarsan, the official channel owned by the government of India- and two other private channels, the Asianet and Soorya TV. These four along with the 60, in Hindi and English - global and regional - are flooding into our drawing rooms round the clock, disturbing the visual sensitivity with the never ending ill treated ‘soaps’, blatant advertisements, and other silly ‘talk shows’. They do not seem to have a purpose other than to sell themselves and ‘products’.

PRODUCTIONS
August saw three major festivals on theatre:
Chingamela ( the New Year fest), organised by Kerala Kala Peetom - Kerala Institute of Arts - to mark its shifting to new premises, in the city of Kochi. This one-week festival had two plays along with music concerts, literary sessions, art demonstrations, and an art exhibition. The plays are Kalippavakal (Play Puppets), a children’s play performed by Soorya children’s theatre Kochi written and directed by me. The second one was Mahanaya Kalakaran (The Great Artist) based on the life of the great Paul Cezan (1839-1906), scripted by M.V.Devan, and directed by John Vekkan, for Nataka Kalari, Eranakulam.

A festival to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Kadhakali Troupe at Thrippunithura. The three day long celebration had a symposium on the ‘the Gender of performances’ and a variety of performances exclusively by women, ranging from music concerts to Kadhakali, to folk theatre forms. The play, Beauty Parlor, presented by Theatre research center, Thiruvananthapuram, written by K.S.Srinadh, directed, and enacted by Sajitha related to the contemporary news on rape and domestic violence in middle class female life. The aggressive use of nudity of the lifeless mannequin, its public mutilation juxtaposed along with that of the clothed body of the lone artist on stage was appalling and passionate. K.A.Gunasekaran directed the Isai natakam (musical drama) in Tamil, Pavazhakkodi or Family conflict by Voicing Silence, Chennai, based on the original play by Amarar Sankaradas Swamikal. This group from Chennai, Tamil Nadu gives voice to different communities of marginalised women, working with professional woman-stage artists in the popular traditional forms of Tamil Nadu, and produces plays on gender themes. The production was interesting in its attempt to mix the traditional with the contemporary in form and  in content. Looviyal Charitham (The Story of Looviyal), presented by St. Mary's Chavittunataka Sangham Kochi, had the sharp performance of 50 year old Molly Joseph (who is a head load worker in real life) in the title role as the beautiful and daring princes. This form Chavittunatakam is a folk narrative drama performed by the Christian communities along the seashores of central Kerala, basically the fisher folk.The CUSAT festival was a three-day competition festival (I was one of the members of the Jury) for the students from the various campuses of Cochin University of Science and Technology. The festival had 8 one-acts of which two are really exciting and innovative. They are Mooka Narthakan (the Malayalam translation of the English play The Dump Dancer written by the late Asif Karim Bai, the London based Indian playwright) directed by Sasidharan Naduvil: and Janalaykappuram (Beyond The Window) written and directed by Prasanth. The play Janmadinam (Birthday) – an adaptation of the short story by late Vaikom Muhammad Basheer with the same title - was also interesting with the simplicity of its narrative techniques.

Two new amateur theatre groups came into existence this month with their maiden ventures. The Janakadha Natakasangham Kochi, an interesting production ofAndharajyathe Aadirasa (The foremost King of the blind country) directed by Ajayan based on the comedy by the Hindi playwright, the late Bharathendu Harischandra, adapted to Malayalam by Suresh Anagally. The other is the Tihai group Thiruvananthapuram with the play Premalekhanam (Love letter) based on the short story by Vaikom Mohammed Basheer directed by Samkutty Pattamkari. I do hope these groups continue their work.

Another important event in the theatre of Kerala is the premiere of the production Gandhi at School of Drama Trichoor (The most important theatre school in South India which has BTA courses in acting, directing and Children’s theatre) written by K.Satchithanandan and directed by Prof. Ramachandran Mokery. The play critically evaluates Gandhi and his influence on the fate of modern India. It was very radical and anarchist in form and content, with strong Brechtian overtones, aimed to shock the passivity of the current Indian sensitivities.

REVIEWS
KALIPPAVAKAL (Play Puppets). Since this play is written and directed by me, I am happy to write on this and at the same time a little reserved in doing so. The play on the increasing trends of westernisation of the culture, attitudes, and performance tradition in current India and the growing contradictions, was enacted by 8 children in the age group of 13- 16. It was performed in the art gallery of Kerala Kalapeetom, not at all a proper theatre space. It did not have a proscenium, wings, lighting arrangements, cyclorama, or even a raised platform and can hold the audience strength of 200. So the children, to suit the unconventional acting space, improvised this presentation (with lighting effects reduced to a bare minimum) depending solely on their histrionic talent and of course on the design of the play. In contrary to my expectation, this lack of proper theatre space did not affect the show but increased the intimacy and the effectiveness of the communication, as evident from the very warm ovation and the reactions from the audience and the critics. I would love to quote from a review in the Hindu, - the most important English daily in India, - to tell you more, about the show, that was.

“…The play tells in a direct, straightforward manner the story of the mother puppeteer, and her daughter puppets, who narrate the stories to villagers, accompanied by a dumb boy who keeps the rhythm on his drum. The puppets tell old stories, endearing ones like that of the beautiful princess and the dangerous demon… They lived happily on whatever they got from rural folks till…a dapper youth who strolls across …introduces himself as a choreographer from the city and invites the girls to join his troupe loaded with promises… But once they reach the city, their dreams are shattered by the torturous tutelage of the choreographer who tries to teach them to catwalk… The eight-member children team infused the play with vibrant energy. They used their imagination for impromptu improvisations to suit the character of the available space…. The costumes had a typical north Indian flavor complete with vibrant dupattas, bangles, and heavy metal ornaments, as the director aiming for a gypsy narrative, inspired by the wandering companies of puppeteers in the North….”

MOOKA NARTHAKAN (The Dump Dancer). The play travels into the abysmal dark areas of love, lust, ego, and power games embedded in the human psyche. To unravel the many complex shades and layers in man-woman relationships, the playwright uses a Kadhakali dancer who identifies himself as the character of the powerful Bhima, as the central character ,  a blind singer who excels in his art, a lady psychiatrist Prema who tries to help the protagonist from his mental disorders of schizophrenia and fantasies, and an innocent young girl who is the love of the protagonist.. The multi-leveled set was effectively used to represent the Kadhakali Training School, the mental hospital, and an operation theatre in the same hospital. The dark inside of the Kadhakali actor turned schizophrenic as well as that of the doctor Prema is denuded with the same intensity in the production. Prema kills the young girl out of enmity and to snatch the love of Bhima (the epic character, not the actor) and relaxes in a dreamy vicarious ecstasy, when Bhima ties her loosened hair with the blood of the young girl. Parallels with the episodes in Mahabharatha lift the situation out of the mundane.

The use of Kadhakali music throughout, the psychedelic colors in lighting design, the covering of the  sets reminiscent of Kadhakali costumes and use of Kadhakali headgear, as images were certainly creative. The acting level was high with vibrant physical movements (as demanded for a Kadhakali actor), carefully delineated postures and gestures, and concentrated subtle emotive projections as and when needed. The concluding image in which the characters are trapped in the operation theatre/jail with a displayed board that read ‘Do not disturb’ - was stunning. The whole production exhibited a standard much above that expected from a student production and walked away with awards for the best play and for the best woman actor (the one who performed the role of the young girl. But the real kudos are due to Sasidharan Naduvil the director, a very promising name in the amateur theatre of Kerala.

© 2000 Chandradasan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

september 2000

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