Showing posts with label theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theatre. Show all posts

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Playwrights note Aikyatan- The Beethoven of someone’s heart




The ideas a play wishes to reflect originates in the sensibilities
of the playwright. Yet he has an uneasy feeling that directorial liberty
has intruded and distorted his ideas. Even the actors tend to oppose
the playwright’s or the director’s viewpoints. None questions the
individuality of the performer. But once out of the green room and on
stage, an actor’s opinions are straight jacketed and he has to transform
himself into a puppet, controlled by the ventriloquist duo of the
playright and the director. Only thus can be kept intact the sensitivity
of a subject oriented play.
But when these very puppets spring to life and transmogrify
into unleashed powerhouses of emotions, who emasculates them?
The director can clip the wings of the actor. But can he convincingly
ensoul the characters as envisioned by the playwright ? So,
does the theatre stage turns into Armageddon for the conflicting dogmatism
of the actors, the playwright and the director ?
Some such ubiquitous antipathies are behind the nascence of
Gitanjali, Betaal, Beraag and Aikyataan – beings from the land of the
mind, who asks : are we the corpses of a cultural death ? Are our
artists the carcasses of art?
We hear resigned sighs in the affirmative.
So, against this fatalism we hereby launch our crusade.

Plyawrits note
Aikyatan
An Assamese musical play
From Satyanusandhan a collection of Play in Assamese
Distributor Bandhab ,Panbazar
Price :Rs.180

Monday, 25 December 2017

Satyanusanndhan :Coolection of SIx plays in Assamese





My new book Satyanusandhan (সত্যানুসন্ধান), a collection of plays has reached the store.
It is Distributed by: Bandhav  ,Panbazar (বান্ধৱ, পাণবজাৰ)
Interested readers can go through the book and will be obliged if you give your valuable feedback (Whatever the cynicism, criticism it may be please do discuss in open)
Few of our readers are not acquainted with reading ASSAMESE drama (I don’t claim to be a master craft though) but reading plays can be a enchanting experience.
Why this new book?
“We have entered a post truth age, searching for truth has become obscured idea
Post truth phenomenon has entered the world of performance art so as in plays  
Has it hindered the importance of written word (or playwright as a whole?)
That makes documentation of this search for truth (সত্যানুসন্ধান), necessity.
Name :Satyanusandhan
Page no : 208
Price :180 only 

It contains three full length Play
one each -One act Play ,Children's Play and a Street Play

 
Publisher :Bhargavi Prakashan ,Assam contact :bhargaviassam@gmail.com
Distributor :Bandhav ,Panbazar,Guwahati , conatact bandhavpublication@gmail.com



Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Nilakantha


Great creators observe the society very precisely and in some of their creation they sketch the darker side of people in general which we deny in order to project our limitation as inevitable.
Somewhere in my blog I have written about the master Hrithik Ghatak in Meghe Dhaka Tara where he has nicely explored this cunning /unforgiving /ruthless/jealous /selfish human nature in the characters surrounding main protagonist Neeta. In fact this nature is in all of us and as in India –we are all some social creature so everyone has to intact the way society expect it to do so. And while performing your social responsibility you might lose your money, self respect and eventually your whole life.

Off late I was reading Natya Sambhar (নাট্য সম্ভাৰ)–the complete collection of plays written for moving theatre of Assam by master visionary Late Dr.Bhabendra Nath Saikia .

It’s a huge collection consisting of  24 full length  plays. Unquestionably all of them are masterpiece. As I started with the topic of uncivil behaviour of our so called community while I went through the plays in many plays I observed the same bitter observation as in Ghtak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara in completely different plots.
What runs parallel to Neeta’s life in the movie is similar to what happens in the life of Nilakantha (নীলকন্ঠ) - in the play by the same name. But Nilakantha was much stronger than Neeta .He had dream for himself, for his town, his family but all people wanted from Nilakantha was sacrifice. Nilakantha never minds giving, but appetite of a selfish surrounding was never satisfactory and fate had decided some other ending to his life.
But Nilakantha never bowed down to his fate but preferred to live the non existent life of monetary misery but his head still held high.
Terrific narration and as usual very illustrative dialogue with metaphor from daily life (the trade mark BNS dialogue) like
Nilakantha asks Radha after meeting her eleven years apart ‘How are you Radha? Any news?
Radha: What news can you expect from me, I am okay.
Nilakanth: Its been eleven years and still there is no news?
Radha: Even if it rains cats and dog have you seen water settling on duck's back, my life is something like that….
Dialogue like that hunts a spectator for many years .Nilakantha is notably one of the best drama from this collection. And that is the reason I believe we need more and more publication of plays and we should build up the habit of reading drama.
Because once staged a drama vanishes in the ambiguity of high speed life, and unlike movies and books never come back to public eyes even people want it to reproduce.

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Death of a playwright

 
Students of English literarture begin with Shakespeare as they approach their subject, and Sanskrit Students starts with -Kalidas .Besides literature some examples of most common references from history, politics philosophy we quote are from works of Sophocles, Christopher Marlowe, Samuel Beckett etc .You can assume all those are playwright and their works have remarkable impact on human society till today.
Over last few years we have observed a sudden surge of readership when it comes to reading novel, short story, poems and even articles in Assam. That’s a very good sign.
But are we reading plays?
‘Not really ‘will be the answer from most of the avid reader.
Why?
Before going to its answer let us think what really is keeping the Shakespearean spirit alive? Definitely the numerous discussion, scholarly article, research and criticisms on Shakespeare over the years. That has lead to numerous adaptations in modern day venture (novel, cinema, songs) by virtue of which the culture is infused over the non reading generation also. So what is the problem we have in Assamese plays? 
Now the problem with Assamese drama is that modern Assamese play came late into the picture (1st Assamese modern play was written in 1857, Gunaviram Baruah   ) and by that time Assamese short story, novel and poems had already arrived so to reader drama became a full fledged live audio visual art (so it developed a popular believe among common reader no need to read them)
Then come the Bramyaman theatre which is doing immense work in the field, but as it’s a commercial venture and many Bramyaman productions are made for mass audience. While doing so they become copycat reproduction of cheap Bollywood movie. Because of this many critique are distancing themselves from Bramyaman .And again because of it they are ignoring a important aspect of Assamese literature which needs to be discussed /researched etc. (because there are many original good stage venture in Bramyaman also)
So to a top critique drama in Assam they mean only the   -Amateur plays.
Now this amateur theatre in Assam are having problem of their own .From lack of facility, money, infrastructure, govt support, vcd aggression, and so on.
And what adding cheery on the top is a new form of change in amateur theatre.
Since last 15 years a new concept is evolving where theatre worker do not follow any text as script .They just take a concept/plot, and the script evolves during rehearsal with visual inputs from all the workers.
I have no problem with that kind of production but…. If this continues then their will is no one left to write an original Assamese play.
That might lead us to a day when no new play being written, so no one will read it so forget the staging / discussion or criticism part.
So as a result a whole genre of literature will lost as we seat our eyes closed.

Monday, 8 June 2009

Habib Tanveer


Just got the news Habib Tanveer, the eminent theatre personality of India passed away. I liked his husky voice, his style of acting, his persistent effort to for theatre. Last year I had the opportunity of reading his play ‘Agra Bazaar’ liked it a lot.
I will regret not to see his play live.