IGNOU Meg- 16 Block-7 Folk Theatre Notes

Meg- 16 Block-7 Folk Theatre

FOLK THEATRE 

LINK FOR IGNOU BOOK - http://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/48603/1/MEG-16B7E.pdf

UNIT 27 Appropriation of Folk in Indian Theatre: Jatra, Kathakali, Tamasha, Nautanki and Pala 

The generous use of the following in order to cater to the entertainment choices of the masses:

1. • music 

2. • dance 

3. • different types of drums and other popular musical instruments 

4. • extravagant and theatrical make-up 

5. • masks 

6. • singers 

7. • chorus 

8. • clown 

The themes in folk theatre are along the lines of the folk literature involving stories retold and enacted from: 

1. • mythological texts like the Mahabharata and Ramayana 

2. • romances, tales and legends of folklore 

3. • social and political events and incidents of a given time

Folk theatre is not merely a production watched from a distance by the audience rather it involves a synergism of: 

1. • customs 

2. • beliefs 

3. • observances and rituals undertaken by performers as well as the audience 

4. • celebrations 

5. • festivals 

6. • special occasions like child-birth, marriage, coronation of an heir, victory in battle field, elections, sports etc. 

7. • martial arts 

8. • charity 

9. • collective prayers, congregations

Folk theatre is traditionally performed in the open on makeshift stages like round, square, rectangular, multiple-set which are almost always facilitated through the support of the audience, village people, community or panchayats.

Jatra

It began in Bengal in the 15th century under the influence of the Bhakti movement. The devotees of Krishna and disciples of Sri Chaitanya would go on walking in small trains displaying their devotion through highly energetic singing and dancing, sometimes performing episodes from the life of Krishna.  jatra – which means to travel or to embark on a journey. Towards the 19th century the jatra underwent changes and its repertoire got enriched with love sagas, and with social and political issues. Jatra was primarily operatic theatre, but by the beginning of the 20th century spoken dialogues were introduced in jatra along with the singing. Originally, it used to be a night-long performance, but was, over time, cut down to a few hours. The musicians sit on both sides of the stage playing the pakhawaj, harmonium, tabla, flute, trumpets, violin, dholak, cymbals and clarinet. Music and singing is mostly based on folk tunes.

Kathakali

It is an interesting amalgam of dance, drama, classicism, music, folk, costumes, make-up and storytelling.The state of Kerala and the adjoining south-western Indian region are the homeland to Kathakali. Kathakali performances are based on the stories from Mahabharata, Ramayana and Shaiva literature. Kathakali is a mimed dance, where the narration and dialogues are rendered by the singers/chorus sitting on one side of the stage, and is characterized by drumbeats and intense singing

The description of the dance is further given as follows: 

Most kathakali characters (except those of women, Brahmans, and sages) wear towering headgear and billowing skirts and have their fingers fitted with long silver nails to accentuate hand gestures. 

The principal characters are classified into seven types. 

• (1) Pachcha (“green”) is the noble hero whose face is painted bright green and framed in a white bow-shaped sweep from ears to chin. Heroes such as Rama, Lakshmana, Krishna, Arjuna, and Yudhishthira fall into this category. 

• (2) Katti (“knife”), haughty and arrogant but learned and of exalted character, has a fiery upcurled moustache with silver piping and a white mushroom knob at the tip of his nose. Two walrus tusks protrude from the corners of his mouth, his headgear is opulent, and his skirt is full. Duryodhana, Ravana, and Kichaka belong to this type. 

• (3) Chokannatadi (“red beard”), power-drunk and vicious, is painted jet black from the nostrils upward. On both cheeks, semicircular strips of white paper run from the upper lip to the eyes. He has black lips, white warts on nose and forehead, two long curved teeth, spiky silver claws, and a blood-red beard. 

• (4) Velupputadi (“white beard”) represents Hanuman, son of the wind god. The upper half of his face is black and the lower red, marked by a tracery of curling white lines. The lips are black, the nose is green, black squares frame the eyes, and two red spots decorate the forehead. A feathery gray beard, a large furry coat, and bell-shaped headgear give the illusion of a monkey. 

• (5) Karupputadi (“black beard”) is a hunter or forest dweller. His face is coal black with crisscross lines drawn around the eyes. A white flower sits on his nose, and peacock feathers closely woven into a cylinder rise above his head. He carries a bow, quiver, and sword. 

• (6) Kari (“black”) is intended to be disgusting and gruesome. Witches and ogresses, who fall into this category, have black faces marked with queer patterns in white and huge, bulging breasts. 

• (7) Minnukku (“softly shaded”) represents sages, Brahmans, and women. The men wear white or orange dhotis (loincloths). Women have their faces painted light yellow and sprinkled with mica, and their heads are covered by saris.

Tamasha 

Tamasha originated in the early 18th century in Maharashtra as an option to entertain the Mughal armies that would camp while on their war-expeditions in the Deccan region. In 18th and 19th centuries, tamasha flourished in the courts of the Maratha rulers and had its heyday in the Peshwa period (1796–1818). Tamasha is a Persian word which means a spectacle, or display. Tamasha, like most folk theatre forms, is a highly energetic performance with powerful drumming and loud gestures, sometimes with suggestive lyrics. In the traditional tamasha form, the dancers comprise dancing-boys called as nachya, who also performed the role of female characters, and a poet-composer known as Shahir who played the traditional role of a sutradhar or sometimes the role of a jester, called Songadya, who would conduct the performance.

Nautanki

Nautanki is a night-long performance in which a narrative is performed through singing and occasional dancing tweaked with few acts of humour. Most of the performers in a nautanki are singers too. Sometimes the use of chorus is also there. The musicians sit on the stage and are visible to the audience. During the heightened moments, while the emotive energy peaks in the performance, an interesting repartee between the performers and the musicians can be evidenced. A nautanki performance begins with invocation to gods. The costumes worn in 12 Folk Theatre nautanki are usually traditional. They may have variations depending on the characters. The dresses and makeup are not very complex and so it is not a difficult task for the artist to get ready for the stage.

Pala

Pala is a popular folk theatre tradition of Odisha and is related with a composite

culture of the community of Satyapir. Pala originates in the Mughal period when

the “Satyanarayan” of Hindus intermingled with the “Pir” of Muslims. This amalgam

resulted in the formation of Satyapir.The Muslim fakir had Hindu disciples who worshipped him like a Hindu deity and Muslim disciples too believed in him like a religious leader. The devotional singing and dancing performed in honour of Satyapir is referred as to as pala. Fakir is considered to be an incarnation of Satyapir. He is greatly revered by Muslims as well as Hindus.

A pala performance begins with an invocation to Satyapir. This is followed by a musical rendition of stories from Puranas, the epics or folklore, along with the devotional compositions of various poets. Firstly the gayak narrates the mythological episode and the co-performers join the gayak in accordance with the sequential moments in a chorus similar to dialogue. In a pala, the gayak is the core to the whole performance as he strikes a rapport with the audience, leads the musical rendition of the narrative and improvises to entertain and enthral the devotional attention of the audience. Through his spirited singing he has to create a make belief for power along with softness in the performance.

On the basis of the mode of performing, pala can be of three varieties:

1. baithaki (sitting), 

2. thia (standing), and 

3. badi pala in which the two groups of pala playfully compete to excel in the performance

UNIT 28 Folk, Popular and Film  

Generally, a film can accommodate the elements of folk in two ways. 

• /One is through iconic adaptation of a folk literature with its specifications and another is to adapt a literature, adding several folk elements which ultimately attach a new dimension in the film. The same rule can be applied in the case of adapting ‘popular’. On one hand, a film can adapt a popular literature which is intended for the entertainment of mass; and 

• on the other, it can incorporate a number of popular features in high/ serious literature also. But, if a film based on high/serious literature becomes popular among the masses, it can also be termed as a popular film.

IDENTIFYING ‘FOLK’ AND ‘POPULAR’ IN SATYAJIT RAY’S PATHER PANCHALI: A CASE STUDY

About the film and the author & Element of folk - RFB

 IDENTIFYING ‘FOLK’ AND ‘POPULAR’ IN RIDLEY SCOTT’S ROBIN HOOD : A CASE STUDY

About the film and the author & Element of folk - RFB

UNIT 29 Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana and Naga-Mandala 

Girish Karnad: An Indian playwright of repute, recipient of Padma Bhushan and Jnanpith Award, Girish Raghunath Karnad is not only known to people associated with drama and theatre studies, but also to the cinema goers as an actor and director. Born in 1938 in Matheran, near Mumbai and educated at Sirsi and Dharwad in Karnataka, Mumbai and Oxford

Works -  Yayati (1961), Tughlaq (1964),  Hayavadana or Horse-Head (1971), Anjumallige, literally ‘Frightened Jasmine’ (1977), Hittina Hunja, literally ‘The Dough Rooster’ or ‘Dough-Cock’ is written in 1980, Bali: The Sacrifice in 2002. In 1988, with Naga-Mandala, Tale-Danda (1990), literally ‘Death by Decapitation’, Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain, 1994), Odakalu Bimba (2004) in Kannada translated as Bikhre Bimb in Hindi and A Heap of Broken Images in English, Maduve Album (2006) translated in English as Wedding Album appeared in 2009, Flowers (2012), Benda Kaalu on Toast in Kannada appeared in 2012, and was published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in English as Boiled Beans on Toast, in 2014.

HAYAVADANA - RFB

In 1972, it won both the annual Sangeet Natak Akademi award and the Kamaladevi Award of the Bharatiya Natya Sangh, for best Indian play.

NAGA-MANDALA Sources and Plot - RFB

Naga-Mandala (1988), which came seventeen years after Hayavadana, can be considered a companion play because it creates variations on many of the same themes.

UNIT 30 Habib Tanvir’s Charandas Chor

Born in Raipur, Madhya Pradesh on September 1, 1923; graduated from Morris College, Nagpur in 1944; then started his career in Mumbai at an ammunition factory; wrote for films in Mumbai; joined Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) and became an integral part of Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) as an actor in 1945

‘The breakthrough came in 1973, during a month-long nacha10 workshop that Tanvir conducted in Raipur. More than a hundred folk artists of the region participated, along with several observers including university students and professors from Raipur and folklorists and anthropologists from Delhi and Calcutta…The production which was thus created was called Gaon ka Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damaad, an almost wholly improvised stage play.’

Tanvir, using detailed and intense improvisations, enabled the rural performers to freely perform in their own language and style, rather than imposing the methods used by trained urban actors, directors and theatre-makers.

Charandas Chor is based on a Rajasthani folktale by very eminent writer-folklorist Vijaydan Detha and he had documented it from the oral cultural tradition of Rajasthan. 

. A man who makes you laugh. Endears himself to you, and whom you do not wish to die, dies and you (suddenly) see why. And the meaning emerges, an anti-establishment meaning. I think people like that kind of catharsis. They are intrigued. I do not think I would have gained that kind of popularity without this end. Had the protagonist survived, the play wouldn’t have survived.’

Our hero, Charandas, the chor is an honest and truthful individual, who will put his life at risk but not break the vows he made. Unlike the so-called thief in the modern context, our Charandas amassed rice from the penny-pinching landlord and give it to the ravenous peasants. A man of principles, he is an ardent believer of social justice and supports the downtrodden.