Marathi Theatre: A Glimpse into its Illustrious Past

मराठी रंगभूमी

Marathi Theatre: A Glimpse into its Illustrious Past

Preface

This booklet showcases the historical developments of various trends and events that helped in the making of the Marathi Theatre.

Although this theatre was strongly influenced by the Bengali, Parsi and English Theatres , the approach this theatre had towards entertainment was well suited for the audience of the region of Maharashtra. In this booklet the key moments in the history of the evolution of this theatre have been highlighted and the importance and appreciation that it gets even in today’s world, across all generations has been showcased.

Introduction

Early references date back to the 1st century cave inscriptions at Nashik by Gautami Balashri, the mother of Satavahan ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni . They mention him organizing Utsava and Samaja forms of theatrical entertainment for his subjects.

The tradition of the modern marathi theatre dates back to 15th-16th century, when Sarfoji Raje Bhosle of Thanjavur (Shivaji Maharaj’s cousin) used to write plays in Telugu and Marathi. These plays are still preserved in the Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur. Controversy over whether they can be called as the first plays in the history of Marathi Theatre was created as the place where the plays were performed are quite far from Maharashtra and the styles/ traditions have not been continued there.

The onset and inspiration of the first plays of the theatre is reportedly from the Kannada stage, from a folk-form named ‘Yakshagana’ . The theatre started performing Sangeet Natak. From the kirtan tradition came the music, the dashavatar brought the enactment and the Kannada plays got the costumes and staging techniques. All this lead to Vishnudas Bhave creating the first marathi play to be accepted by the audience - Sita Svayamvar.

Serfoji Raje Bhosle - Thanjavur

A performance of ‘Yakshagana’

Vishnudas Bhave

A performance of Sita Svayamvar Mahatma Phule

Onset of the Modern Marathi Theatre

In 1843, a puppetier from Sangli, Maharashtra, Vishnudas Bhave staged the first unscripted Sangeet Natak (musical play) - Sita Svayamvar . He first saw a performance of Yakshagana when it was staged a Maharashtra and was inspired by it to start a similar tradition for and by the Marathi-speaking community.

Borrowing staging techniques and costume design from the Kannada plays and adding songs to the enactment, Bhave created an environment similar to Yakshagana and produced Sita Svayamvar. Looking at his dedication and desire to create an artform like this for the people, The Maharaja of Sangli Chintamanrao Appa Saheb Patwardhan commisioned his work which helped Bhave take his plays all over Maharashtra. He formed the Sanglikar Natak Company and toured the entire state, performing plays based on mythological narratives. They had no written scripts, only tales which was already known to the audience. The enactment of the little details in the stories and the exaggeration of some was attractive to the people. They started incorporating a lot of sword-fighting and war scenes performed by trained swordsmen which became very popular.

On the same lines as Bhave, was Jyotiba Phule also known as Mahatma Phule who wrote the first Marathi political play- Tritiyaratna .

In 1880, Saubhadra , the first scripted marathi musical play written by Annasaheb Kirloskar , was performed in Pune. In 1907, Krishnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar , a disciple of Lokmanya Tilak , wrote and staged a play criticising the tyrant rule of Lord Curzon in West Bengal. It was called Kichakavadh i.e.

‘Killing of Kichaka’ , based on the mythological tale of Draupadi, Bhima , and Kichaka, commented caustically on Lord Curzon’s oppressive rule . It was banned till 1916 describing it as seditious.

Marathi society loves songs, especially classical music, hence the melodious combination of music and drama that Annasaheb Kirloskar’s plays brought to the theatre was tremendously in demand. He saw Parsi plays and observed that the characters were singing thier own songs. In Vishnudas Bhave’s plays, there was a different choir which sang the songs. After this observation, being able to sing became a necessary quality in a person interested in acting in one of his plays.

Annasaheb Kirloskar Krishnaji Khadilkar Parsi Theatre- which inspired Annasaheb’s Plays

Nandi being performed in the beginning of Sangeet Natak

Sangeet Natak

Sangeet Natak in Marathi language literally means Musical Drama. As the name suggests, this form of drama combines prose as well as poetry in form of songs to convey the story. In a manner, they are very much similar to Musicals. The dramatic music used in these is known as ‘Natya Sangeet’ which is one of the two popular forms of vocal arts in Maharashtra and surrounding states, the other being Bhavageet (literally ‘emotion poetry’ ).

People from all over the country, who were unknown to Marathi language, came to watch these musicals. The theatre companies portrayed the story so well through use of various tunes and melodies to create an environment, that there was no language barrier for the audience. This field of theatre was dominated by great artists like Bal Gandharva, Deenanath Mangeshkar and Vasantrao Deshpande .

An important tradition of ‘nandi’ or overture was observed by all marathi plays. It was basically an orchestral piece of music, praising the Lord Natraja, performed before the play started. In earlier dramas, nandi used to be done behind the curtains/before the curtains were opened, after which the narrator would give a brief about what the play depicts/gave a context to the play. Once during a performance of one the plays by the Kirloskar Natak Company , the curtains were mistakenly opened at the wrong time and the nandi going on behind the curtains was revealed. The people saw the narrator, actors and singers performing it with the various puja vessels and flowers in their hands and found it very amusing. They found that it being done in front of the audience would have a welcoming and completely different effect on their viewing of the play. Hence they started performing nandi in front of the audience.

Music/Natya Sangeet

Any music used during the play had a design and rules of its own. It was given according to which rasa was being produced/depicted in the act but it was not the only aspect taken into consideration, the character portraying the rasa was also very important. For example, if the character was a rickshaw driver, his act would be accompanied by a folk-tune and if the character was a high class businessman he would be given classical music . Various forms of Indian music were incorporated in the plays like Carnatic music, Kirtans, Tappa, Hardasi and Gazals .

Bal Gandharva , a famous Marathi singer and a stage actor, brought musicians from Uttar Pradesh and Bengal which brought a new layer of class and glory to the music being used in Sangeet Natak . His contribution to the Marathi Theatre is tremendous and the songs rendered by him are regarded as classics of Marathi Natya Sangeet and his singing style is greatly appreciated by Marathi critics and audiences. Other well-known singers/musicians include Deena nath Mangeshkar, Asha Khadilkar, Mahesh Kale and so on.

Eventually, the music tended to be more than the drama, so the drama sought a new stage for itself .

Bal Gandharva Deenanath Mangeshkar

Asha Khadilkar

Posters of plays produced after the downfall of Sangeet Nataks

New Era For the Marathi Theatre

After Independence, the way of living changed , society changed and change in day to day behaviour and language started getting incorporated in the dramas. The marathi theatre experienced a new kind of revolution after the socio-political changes that happened after Independence, and the narrator of these changes was Vijay Tendulkar . Marathi Literature changed after 1950s and new phase of marathi theatre started. After 1955,due tothe onset of competitions, the people who would have remained as audiences were also encouraged and drawn towards becoming artists in the plays.

Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marathi. He is regarded as one of India’s greatest playwrights , whose hard-hitting Marathi plays established him as an irreverent but brilliant writer of plays with contemporary, unconventional themes . Many of Tendulkar’s plays derived inspiration from real-life incidents or social upheavals, which provide clear light on harsh realities. He has been a highly influential dramatist and theatre personality in Maharashtra for over five decades.

A new kind of experience was given to theatre and was dominated by writers like Purshottam Laxman Deshpande (Pu. La. Deshpande) and Vasant Kanitkar. Pu La Deshpande is often referred to as ‘Maharashtra’s Beloved Personality’ as he was known in every household with his plays which had a humorous take on everyday lives of people of all classes. His famous plays such as Vaaryaavarchi Varat, Vatvat, and Tujhe Aahe Tuza Paashi were known for drawing house-full crowds. Scenes from his plays and witty dialogues were always the talk of the town and are still often incorporated in everyday lexicon.

Vijay Tendulkar

Vasant Kanitkar Purshottam Laxman Deshpande aka Pu. La. Deshpande

Annasaheb Kirloskar

Satish Alekar Dr. Mohan Agashe

Chandrakant Kale Shrirang Godbole

In 1972, a big controversy happened over a play by Vijay Tendulkar, Ghashiram Kotwal , produced by the Progressive Dramatic Association in Pune. Although not liked by all, it was a very successful play in the eyes of other artists and theatre enthusiasts. Controversies arose as some of the public who viewed the play thought that it was against the bramhins of Pune , had opinions that it criticised the rule of Peshwas and that it was a character assassination of Nana Phadanvis . After 19 performances, the play was discontinued.

The actors performing in the play did not agree with the discontinuation of it, so they left the Progressive Dramatic Association and created their own organisation called Theatre Academy. Theatre Academy was formed on 27th March, 1973, at actor Satish Alekar’s house in Shaniwar Peth, Pune. A lot of well-known directors, playwrights, actors, singers, and music directors like Jabbar Patel, Satish Alekar, Mohan Agashe, Ramesh Medhekar, Kalpana Deolankar, Chandrakant Kale, Mohan Gokhale, Shrirang Godbole and many others, have started their career with Theatre Academy. Presently, it is headed by Prasad Purandare as honorary President.

Present Day Marathi Theatre

The theatre has been operational for more than 150 years now and it exists not only in big cities but also in small towns and villages. It has a wide range of audience, from elderlies to kids, from marathi speaking folks to non-marathi speaking ones. Natak (theatre) is an important form of Maharashtra’s cultural life. The new generation often gets inspired by the new and latest trends in Hollywood and the West, so a lot of their influence is seen in the plays today. This helps bring a lot of modernity to the visuals and technicalities. This mix of traditional theatre practices and the modernity that the new generations brought to it, shows a lot of promise for the future of Marathi Theatre. Marathi Theatre’s pathway was laid down by its writers , some of them are directors too. In the present time, context and thoughts from all five generations of the theatre bring a lot of quality and promise to the community and variety for the audience as well.

Mohit Takalkar Alok Rajwade Nipun Dharmadhikari

Amey Wagh

Parna Pethe

Mohit Takalkar is an important director who came into the limelight in 1990s. He had seen his colleagues do a lot of influential work and this had a major imp act on his current practice and writing. Seeing his colleagues’ works created a lot of vigour and enthusiasm in him to bring his own language forward to the public. There was a strive to find a different style from the original playwrights like Tendulkar and Elkunchwar.

Another renowned director and writer in the new generation of Marathi Theatre is Nipun

Dharmadhikari. His first contact with arts came when he did an impromptu performance of the Marathi play, Varhad Nighalay London La in front of his class, in school. He started a theatre group named Natak Company along with actors Alok Rajwade, Amey Wagh, Parna Pethe and few students from Brihan Maharahtra College of Commerce (BMCC) and Fergusson College in 2008, which produces Marathi plays.

Children’s Plays

The Maharashtra Cultural Centre in Pune has a ‘Balrang Mahotsav’ every year which is a gathering and performance of different plays written for children. This concept was brought to Maharahtra from the Gripp’s Theatre (theatre for children and youth) in Berlin, by Dr.Mohan Agashe (Indian psychiatrist and actor). It is a theatre which performs plays for children of all ages. They perform acts about problems which the kids have but cannot understand and shed light on how they can overcome them. Every show done in this Mahotsav is house-full and the audience not only has children and their parents but also a lot of senior practitioners of the theatre.

Competitions

In 1955, the Maharashtra State Competition was started and the first play to win was Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Shrimanta’. After the onset of these competitions, the people who would have remained as audiences were also encouraged and drawn towards becoming artists in the plays. A lot of vernacular play competitions are held in Maharashtra on inter-collegiate levels as well as professional levels, so a lot of youngsters are drawn towards theatre and a lot of them retain on the theatre platform. A few of these are:

•Purshottam Karandak

•Raja Paranjape Karandak

•Dajikaka Gadgil Karandak

The theatre has been operational in Maharashtra for more than 150 years and it exists not only in big cities but in small towns and villages as well. Ever since competitions and awards have been introduced to the field, a lot of the people from the audience has made its way into the theatre industry. These awards are a big part of the evolution and continuation of the Marathi Theatre. Presently, content and thoughts from all five generations of playwrights, directors and artists is being performed. This tradition remains unbroken and the new generations keep bringing something new to it.

Every year ‘Marathi Rangbhoomi Din’ is celebrated on 5th November.

Copyright © National Institute of Design, Assam

Aditi Sachin Ganjave