Assamese theatre
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By Mofid Tourism Assam
Theatre in Assam
Bhraymaman theatre --Assamese mobile theatre industry
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Bhraymaman theatre
Assam’s mobile theatres
The mobile theatre of Assam (with annual turnover worth Rs 10 crores) that presents contemporary themes and adopts even Hollywood stories like the Titanic is extremely popular both in urban and rural areas of the state.
In Assam's entertainment arena, the festive season of Durga Puja is also the time for the 'carnival on wheels' to roll out with its 'magic', 'miracles' and much more 'up the sleeve'. The vastly popular mobile theatre companies (known as Bhraymaman theatre locally) launches their annual shows with stunts and emotional quotients packed together to make a winning combination of drama on stage.To match its unrivalled record of bringing to life what even filmmakers think twice before venturing into on reel, the mobile theatre companies of Assam have roped in contemporary issues – right from Saddam to Superman to vampires to dwarfs.Even Gabbar Singh and Sholay have got a new lease of life on Assam's stage though the much-vaunted Ram Gopal Varma's version got the boot from the public and critics alike. An industry in its own right with an annual turnover of over Rs 10 crore, the mobile theatre industry of the northeastern state has been entertaining the masses for the last few decades gaining in stature progressively.
History
In 1930, the Kohinoor Opera, the first mobile theatre group of Assam, was started by Natyacharya Brajanath Sarma. From Dhubri to Sadiya, from the north bank to the south bank of the Brahmaputra River, Kohinoor Opera performed its dramas, attracting thousands of spectators whi came to see Sarma perform. Apart from initiating a theatrical movement, the Kohinoor Opera introduced co-acting on the stages of Assam. In 1931, Brajanath Sarma, with the help of Phani Sarma introduced female actresses for the first time to appear in their drama productions at a time when male acting was completely dominant, revolutionizing the nature of Assamese theatre.
Like Jatra?
Though the mobile theatre of Assam has certain things in common with the Jatra of West Bengal – for example, the roving nature and performance on makeshift stages – the Assam productions put in much more effort for technical perfection and have evolved from depictions of mythological stories to themes of contemporary nature. Adaptation of ever-new themes and an eye to changing interests have ensured that the mobile theatre genre does not lose its appeal to the young audience either. With the Assamese film industry in a deep slumber, the plays have also provided the artistes another platform to showcase their talent.
Links with Assamese cinema
The glamour quotient in these plays is ensured as Assamese film stars take up lead roles. It thus vindicates the significant place the mobile theatres hold in the media and entertainment industry in the state. Most of the groups start their tour mid-August and wind up by April. The rehearsals start from June, with the entire unit camping together till the end of the season. Technology forms a very important role in these show-stealers. From sinking the Titanic to making the Anaconda crawl to recreating the Jurassic Park, the mobile theatre groups have 'been there, done that'. Even Princess Diana's tragic death has featured in one of the plays. A leading group, Kohinoor, which has an enviable record for wowing the audience with innovative technical feats on stage, has a dwarf up its sleeve this season. In its banner play in 2008 – Abuj Dora, Achin Kainya – the group is staging the tale of a dwarf and his two lookalikes of normal physical height.
A top actor from the Assamese film industry, Jatin Bora, has been roped in for the role. Transforming the six-feet-tall Bora to a dwarf for one of the three characters is no mean feat. The play has similarities with the Kamal Hassan starrer Apu Raja, but the producers maintain that the similarities are only to the extent that both have lead actors in the role of a dwarf. From lighting effects to specially tailored clothes with help from Mumbai, the producers of Kohinoor have spared no cost to ensure that the effect is complete. And it has paid off well too. Already, it is breaking records in revenue collection wherever it performs.Last year, the group had staged a play with an actress in a double role, with her even appearing 'together' several times on stage!
Titanic
On the social content in his plays and accusations that they play to the gallery rather than propagate social values, Kohinoor owner Ratan Lakhar says, "Titanic was followed by a play on the life of 'Kalaguru' Bishnu Rabha the next year. Bishnu Rabha is a cultural icon of Assamese society and greatly admired. There were few takers for the play. We have a business to run and along with producing plays with social content, we have to make plays which pull crowds." "The plays always have a message for the masses, even though it is wrapped in a package of entertaining gimmicks," he adds. Incidentally, the stage adaptation of Titanic was done by Ratan's group. On the urban-rural preferences of theatre audiences, he says that people's expectation from theatre is not different in cities from that in villages or small towns.
"Cities draw as much crowds as the smaller venues and the arrival of the cine stars on stage has added to the glamour quotient of the theatres. We pull more crowds now," he says. A desi version of Superman is also making his appearance on the stage in Aashirbad theatre's play. The protagonist is set to fly around the stage with an outfit with special powers. Evil forces figure as a Dracula-inspired vampire in a production by the Deboraj theatre group. The vampire, more than 250 years old, sucks the blood of his victims. The group brings alive the blood sucking scenes in the play with technical help.
Sholay and other films
And if RGV's Aag left you with a sour taste, then check out the stage adaptation of Sholay by Rajashri Theatre this season. Varma's attempts to divert from the original masterpiece may have fallen flat on its face, but the producers in Assam are happy sticking to the old plot and style. From the famous motorbike ride to the train dacoity sequence of the original film, Rajashri Theatre has aptly translated on stage the magic of the blockbuster from the Sippy stable. The mobile theatre groups of Assam have not just entertained the masses; they have also chosen contemporary topics and personalities as themes for their plays.
In 2008 too, the Saraighat theatre group is staging a play based on Iraq's executed former ruler Saddam Hussein. Many plays by different groups have also helped spread social messages, from terrorism to AIDS, through their productions. Bollywood, and Hollywood stories to some extent, however, are major inspirations for many of the plays. Among motley of such plays in 2008 is one based on the life of a robber, an expert in breaking lockers, staged by the Bhagyadevi group. A host of films, from Dhoom 2 to the remade Don to Cash and Victoria No. 203 have figured as inspiration for many of these plays. But the difference is the playwright has adapted it to suit local sentiments.The mobile theatre groups are striking the right balance between entertainment and social content till now, and the growing popularity of the plays even among the youngsters in urban areas prove that they are hitting the right chord.
Assam's travelling theatres are playing to packed audiences in both urban and rural areas despite jazzed up cinema complexes and cable television.About three years ago, the state produced about a dozen-odd Assamese language films annually. However, this has dwindled to naught with moviegoers growing scarce. With regional cinema in the doldrums, actors, musicians, directors and technicians found an alternative livelihood in the highly popular mobile theatres.The theatres, which belong to a tradition stretching back more than four centuries, have multiplied to over 30.It would have been a silent death for hundreds of people involved in the Assamese film industry but for the mobile theatres. Actors, musicians, directors and technicians are today earning more from mobile theatres than they did from films,' he added.Like Ahmed, there are other filmmakers and actors who once ruled the silver screen but are now working in mobile theatres.
Thousands of people prefer to sit in grassy fields to watch the plays with themes ranging from contemporary events to mythologies, Greek tragedies, Shakespearean plays and Indian classics. 'It is indeed a matter of great pride to find mobile theatres being able to captivate so many people despite modern cinemas and a variety of television channels available to the audience,' said Arun Sharma, a noted Assamese playwright and Sahitya Akademi award winner.The modern commercial form, which emerged in the late 1960s, has clung to its community roots with troupes often performing 10-minute sketches before the main show on subjects like AIDS and drug abuse. The troupes themselves are mini communities, each comprising more than 100 actors, technicians, cooks and general helpers, who travel together on the road for eight straight months beginning August and perform on the stage in villages and cities across the state.'An average 800 to 1,000 people watch a show and that in itself is an indication of the popularity of the mobile theatres,' said Biswa Saikia, owner of one of the theatre groups.
Some productions were such hits that dozens of foreign television crews and journalists trailed the travelling theatre groups through slush and mud in the interiors of Assam. The staging of plays like 'Lady Diana', 'Titanic' and the re-creation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York were instant hits. Encouraged, the travelling troupes have started introducing innovations in their productions by way of lighting and other technical expertise. 'Today, with filmmakers directing on stage and star actors performing as stage artistes, the quality and sophistication of the mobile theatres have gone up. Stage plays with special effects look like a movie,' said set designer Tarun Das. The groups contribute almost 40 percent of their income to local education and other community projects - another reason for the people's acceptance of the travelling theatres over other modes of entertainment.
Osama bin Laden
Far from the lost twin towers of lower Manhattan, a play on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by a traveling band of actors kept audiences spellbound in a remote corner of India. Thousands of men, women and children are crowding into a huge canvas tent in Nazira, a small town in northeastern Assam state, to watch two dozen actors dressed in Afghan-style shirts and turbans recreate Taliban country in a play called "Usama bin Laden." A hush descends on the audience as the stage lights focus on a cave, where an actor playing bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, gets Taliban fighters to pledge to the destruction of America.
As the scene fades, another part of the stage lights up on a young American soldier, whose life takes a dramatic turn when he's asked to join U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Traveling on foot, or on bicycles or by bus, the spectators begin lining up for tickets hours before the two daily shows in this sleepy town, 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Gauhati, Assam's capital. "Even children have heard of bin Laden. It's curiosity that has made me come," said Dilip Bordoloi, a college teacher among some 4,000 people packed into the tent for the Sankardev Theater's performance last Sunday. Outside the tent on a soccer field, vendors sell buttered popcorn and pink cotton candy as balloons bob among the throngs waiting for tickets. Within weeks of the events of Sept. 11, Biswa Saikia, a stocky man in his late forties who set up the theater group 10 years ago, decided to adapt the events surrounding the attacks for the stage.
"We have succeeded in exposing the fact that bin Laden was actually using Islam to further his own vicious goals and thrust what I call 'Ladenism' in the name of jihad, " said director Sewabrata Borua.
The two-hour play in the local Assamese language, with a sprinkling of English and live keyboard music, is performed on adjoining stages.
"The play's message is loud and clear: Islam does not preach violence. It has been used and projected like that by the likes of bin Laden," said scriptwriter Samarendra Barman, a Hindu. Like much of India, the actors and audience are a mix of Muslims and Hindus who work and live together with ease. And like the leaders of this South Asian nation, the audience backed the Americans and scorned the acts of the Taliban and bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network. Some in the audience threw up their hands in anger and hid their faces when Taliban fighters were depicted killing two Afghan teenagers.
"I'm not much of a theatergoer. But I decided to see 'Laden' after reading so much about his terror acts," said Minoti Bora, a college student. "I got a fair idea of how bad the Taliban was."
The Sankardev Theater group is a small community of some 100 actors, technicians, cooks and assistants who are on the road for an eight-month season beginning each August. "I have not seen even a single television image of the twin towers being attacked and crashing," said Pranab Sarma, who plays bin Laden.
"But I read up whatever newspaper clippings I could and plastered the walls of my home and our camp with Laden's photographs. I used to look at these pictures before I slept each night." Jita Saikia, playing an Afghan woman whose family is killed by Taliban raiders, moved audience members to close their eyes and hang their heads in sadness.
"Her powerful acting gave us an idea about the Taliban, how they could kill a boy because his mother would not let him join the Taliban troops, or commit atrocities on a family for letting their daughters go to school," said Arati Bhuyan, a homemaker, after seeing the play. Apart from powerful themes, traveling theaters in Assam are famous for their ingenious special effects. In the bin Laden play, cardboard helicopters fly onto the stage with tail lamps blazing. Half-a-dozen American commandos, played by actors in full battle gear, shimmy down ropes onto the stage as tanks roll into the battle zone.
The play ends with the triumph of good over evil as the Afghan housewife with the support of American and northern alliance soldiers, enters a Taliban hideout. In a twist on recent history, she helps rescue a kidnapped American journalist who had been taken hostage. With a burst of flames, the play concludes with two jetliners slamming into the World Trade Center. The audience does not boo or cheer.
"Terrorism is a global menace," Jagadish Barman, a veterinarian, said as he walked out. "What I liked most about the play, aside from the performance, is its message against violence and the gun culture."
Superman, Anaconda, Saddam, Dhoom2, Don
At a time when films have stolen the theatre audiences, what better way to get back than adapt cinema to stage? Believe it or not, Assam's mobile theatre groups are doing just that. Be it Superman or Dhoom 2 and Don, they are freely yet innovatively drawing inspiration from cinema.
An industry in its own right, with an annual turnover of over Rs 10 crore, the mobile theatres have been entertaining the masses as also helping in spreading social messages, from terrorism to AIDS.Though the mobile theatre (known as Bhraymaman theatre locally) has certain things in common with the Jatra of West Bengal, like their mobile nature and performance on make-shift stages, the Assam productions put in much more effort for technical perfection and have evolved from being depiction of mythological stories to adapting latest themes as subject matter.
From sinking the Titanic to making the Anaconda crawl to recreating the Jurassic Park, the mobile theatre groups have 'been there, done that'. And they are now all geared up with their annual 'dose of miracles on stage'. Most of the groups start their tour from mid-August and wind up by April. The rehearsals start from June, with the entire unit camping together since then till the end of the season
Special effects
A leading group, Kohinoor, which has a wonderful record of wowing the audience with innovative technical feats on stage, has a dwarf up its sleeve this season. In its play Abuj Dora, Achin Kanya (Untutored Groom, Unknown Bride) in 2008, the group will stage the tale of a dwarf and his two look-alikes of normal physical proportions.
A top actor of the Assamese film industry, Jatin Bora has been roped in for the role. Bora, a six- feet tall actor, will be transformed into a dwarf for one of the three characters he would be playing. From lighting effects to specially tailored clothes and a little help from Mumbai technicians, the producers of Kohinoor have spared no cost to ensure that the effect is complete.
The best-known attempt at playing a double role, one of them being that of a dwarf, was made by Kamal Hassan in Appu Raja. No such known professional attempt has perhaps been made in the history of Indian theatre. The dwarf in Appu Raja was a joker, as is Jatin in the play. But the producer stresses that the similarity ends there. While Jatin will be seen as a circus joker in the role of the dwarf, his other two roles in the play will be that of a police officer and an actor. The group had last year staged a play with an actress appearing 'together' several times on stage.
A desi version of Superman will also make its appearance on stage in Aashirbad theatre's play. The protagonist would fly around the stage with the acquired powers from an outfit with special powers.The evil forces would also have their share of stage in Deboraj theatre group. A Dracula-inspired vampire of more than 250 years of age would suck the bloods of his victims. The group promises to bring to life the blood sucking scenes in the play with technical help.The mobile theatre groups of Assam have not just entertained the masses, but also chosen contemporary topics and personalities as theme for their plays. From spreading awareness about AIDS to presenting the life of Princess Diana, the mobile theatre groups have rarely left untouched any topic of the slightest importance.In 2008, too, a play based on Iraq's executed former ruler Saddam Hussein would be performed by the Saraighat theatre group. Though most of the plays have strong social content, a few are also inspired by Bollywood and Hollywood, which had even led to terrorist threat against the groups. But far from subduing under the threat, theatre owners have given writers a green signal to draw from their cinematic cousins.
Among motley of such plays in 2008 is one based on the life of a robber, an expert in breaking lockers, to be staged by the Bhagyadevi group. A host of such films, from Dhoom 2 to the remade Don to the just released Cash, have more than one point of similarity with the play. But the playwright has adapted it to suit the local sentiments and is expected to be a major money-spinner for the group this season.
The mobile theatre groups are striking the right balance between entertainment and social content till now, and the growing popularity of the groups even among youngsters in urban areas promises a rosy future for them.
Ankiya Nat --One-act play
The Bhakti movement has deeply influenced many forms of traditional performing arts prevalent in Eastern India. In Assam it inspired the superb Anktanat. In fact, all the plays in the repertory of this theatre are one-act plays and they are called Ankiya Nat.
1. This is one of the very few surviving traditional performing arts prevalent in Eastern India.2. Ankiya Nat sinks all differences between religious ritual and aesthetic activity.3. Ankiya Nat once enjoyed high patronage from different levels but today it is a victim of indifference. It is necessary to arrest this decay.
Essential elements of the performing art
Music, Dance, Theatre
To a casual onlooker, who cannot go beyond the periphery, Ankiya Nat may appear only as a form of ritual theatre. Sensitive theatergoers, however, will find that it touches those aesthetic heights from which religiosity and secularity do not look antithetical.
No less than a genius can conceive of a theatre that sinks all differences between religious ritual and aesthetic activity, and then makes the disciplined sublimity of classical arts and the emotional immediacy of folk arts walk together hand in hand. Such a form of theatre is Ankiya Nat and Shankaradeva is the genius who conceived and shaped it towards the second decade of the 16th century. He was a saint-aesthetic, subscribing to Vaishanavism but with a difference.
The elements drawn from the folk forms of music, dance and drama not only broadened the range of appeal, but gave Ankiya Nat its unmistakable Assamese character. Amongst folk forms which influenced him most are Ojhapali, a fascinating form combining elements of balladry, dance and drama: Dhulia, a form of group singing and dancing, Bhaoria, balladry, and Putlanach, the traditional marionette theatre of Assam. The fusion of all these diverse elements and influences to mould a powerful dramatic alloy surely required a sensitivity which Shankaradeva had.
The bhawna, that is, the performance of Ankiya Nat, traditionally takes place in a specially constructed theatre hall called rabha or bhawna-ghar. If such a pandal is not there, then one is improvised, or it is performed under a canopied enclosure. The performance is presented at the centre of the hall and spectators sit on all four sides.
The Bhryaman Theatre companies of Assam
Theatre Bhagyadevi (Estd 1973)
Theatre Binapani (Estd 1980)
Kohinoor Theatre (Estd 1981)
Aabahan Theatre (Estd 1985)
Hengool Theatre (Estd 1991)
Srimanta Shankar Dev Theatre (Estd 1998)
Shankar Madhab Theatre (Estd 2002)
Bordoichila Theatre (Estd 2003)
Madhabdev Theatre (Estd 2004)
Gadapani Theartre (Estd 2004)
Theatre Mahabahu Brahmaputra (Estd 2004)
Sree Guru Theatre (Estd 2005)
Meghdoot Theatre (Estd 2005)
Nataraj Theatre (Estd 2006)
Manchatirtha Theatre (Estd 2006)
Pragjyotish Theatre (Estd 2006)
Pathsala
Pathsala is often describes as the Hollywood of Assam for its big mobile theatre groups and regular performances of drama and other cultural activities round t
Ban Theatre, Tezpur
The first modern Assamese theatre hall, the Ban Theatre, was established in the year 1906.Many of the great modern Assamese dramas of Rupkunwar Jyotiprasad Agarwala and Natasurya Phani Sarma, were first staged here. The tradition continues till today.
Mobile Theatre: 2011-2012
The 5 most popular plays of Mobile Theatre in the year 2011-2012 were:
1)Somok-Hengool Theatre(6 shows at a plot)
2)Raktabidyut Pathak B.A-Bhagyadevi Theatre (6 shows at a plot)
3)Bodnam-Brindaban Theatre(4 shows at a plot)
4)Maya Matho Maya-Rajtilak Theatre(3 shows at a plot)
5)Bhal Pao Buli Nokoba-Kohinoor Theatre(3 shows at a plot)
2012: Year-End Poll
Mobile Theatre - Favourite Theatre Group 2012: ---- Hengool Theatre
Mobile Theatre - Favourite Play:: Abhijeet Bhattacharya's "Hiyat Epahi Golap"
From Kohinoor Theatre 2012-2013.
