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.