Modern Theatre in India is completely urban in nature. It is created by & primarily for the middle class & upper middle class. The plays run the gamut from serious to comic, political to frivolous . Modern Theatre in India owes its origin to development of large urban centers such as Calcutta, Bombay (Mumbai) & Madras(Chennai).
Spread of English education led to the spread of British ideas, tastes , values & morals among the Indian intelligentsia . Earlier plays were performed only in English in modeled along the lines of those in London. Drama written in Indian languages & performed on the stage by Indian actors emerged only in the last Quarter of 19th century. Enterprising producers with nationalistic tendencies soon employed theatre as a forum for social & political ideals designed to influence opinions & raise social consciousness. Theatre quickly became weapon to promote social & political reforms. After the performance of Nildarpana in which an English planter was shown raping an Indian peasant woman, there was strict enforcement of censorship. Frustrated by the harsh restrictions , many playwrights turned their attention to exposing the corruption within the Hindu society and addressed a host of social injustice .
The modern theatre of today boasts a number of unique characteristics , including commercial ventures, various grades and qualities of amateur work, limited attempts at experimentation, & determined effort to establish and sustain school and college theatre programs.
AMATEUR
Most of India's modern theatre may be categorized as amateur; that is theatre in which majority of those who participate do so with little expectation of earning a living. The quality of amateur theatre is quite high in Calcutta & is said to have above three thousand registered theatre group. Bombay also has its share of amateur groups .It is said that there are five hundred amateur group functionioning in the city & twenty five hundred in the state of Maharashtra. Both Calcutta & Bombay depend on strong personalities & dedicated workers.
Theatre organisations are either autonomous bodies or they are a part of larger cultural organisations.. The Indian National Theatre is a cosmopolitan theatre organization sponsoring theatre productions in Marathi , Gujrati, Hindi & English. One of the largest running plays in the history of Bombay theatre has been the Gujrati version of Pygmalion called Punarani. Hindi theatre has much smaller base , but some of the nationally known personalities have tried to nurture the Hindi theatre . Prithiviraj Raj , famous film actor was a pioneer through his Prithvi Theatre in nurturing Hindi theatre . Ebrahim Alkazi organized Theatre Group in 1953. English Theatre in Bombay has a long & impressive history. Alyquee Padmsee is one of the leading directors of English theatre & believes that with increasing number of English speaking people there is now a greater demand.
For a city of its size Delhi has little amateur theatre. There are more groups of Punjabi & Hindi , since there are large number of people speaking these two North Indian Languages.
According to the State Academy of Music , Dance & Drama, Films & Folk Arts , Madras (Chennai) has about fifty registered group, most of which perform plays in Tamil , the language of Tamil Nadu.
EXPERIMENTAL
Experimental theatre in India may be considered a branch of the amateur theatre , but in some instances the objectives of the groups and their approach to producing plays are quite different from that of the general run of amateur groups . Calcutta has the reputation of being the foremost center of experimental theatre in the country.
Famous playwright, actor , director, Badal Sircar is the unofficial leader of experimental theatre of Calcutta. His Satabdi group performs generally every Friday evening at any place found suitable , such as simple, open, unfinished hall with no lighting equipment. Unconventional theatre in Mumbai goes by the name of experimental theatre . The recent home of this branch of the amateur movement is the antiquated third floor of the Chabiladas School, near Shivaji Mandir. Prithvi Theatre operates year round program of performances by numerous small theatre groups producing plays in the Marathi, Hindi, Gujrati & English.
The playwright Mohan Rakesh, till his death in 1972 ran an experimental workshop in New Delhi which attempted to break new ground for the production of unconventional, nonrealistic plays in Hindi. His group of enthusiastic young people attempted to develop productions with a focus on physical movement, gesture & sounds rather than be ruled by the dictates of the script. Unlike the lines which are clearly drawn in Calcutta & Mumbai between amateur theatre & the experimental theatre , it is more difficult in to make the distinction in Delhi. As the capital of the country, Delhi audiences have been privileged to witness a host of performances of traditional rural theatre , often presented in quasi- authentic settings, as well as tours by theatre groups from around the world. In this respect, unique theatre which stresses unconventional means of production has found its way into the theatre life of the capital
PLAY
In the modern Western Theatre , the text usually serves as the guide to the production concept. Modern Indian theatre is similar to Western theatre in this respect, it depends on the creative interpretation of the play script . It usually requires a working combination of playwrights, directors & actors to produce modern theatre. Indian playwrights are concerned with a multitude of themes which center around the family, social life in general, the plight of an individual in the modern mechanized society, and contemporary political & social events. This is particularly true of the Marathi playwrights of Mumbai.
Before the establishment of Left- Front in Bengal, the themes of Calcutta writers seemed obsessed with political issues. Corruption & mismanagement of resources have been common themes with the Calcutta playwrights. Here even comedy has a barbed, bitter edge. Playwrights by western standards, most contemporary Indian plays are long, taking anywhere from two to three hours to perform. Today plays composed by Indian authors tend to have multitude of scenes arbitrarily interrupted by a short intermission or two.
Realism seems to dominate the settings & dialogue of most plays. Occasionally a playwright introduces a novel twist, such as narrator or dialogue spoken by groups of characters. Occasionally songs & segment of dance is also introduced, which suspend the flow of the dramatic action and provide variety to the proceedings. Many playwrights today are turning to highly theatrical gimmicks, such as " stop action" over which the record thoughts of a character are played. Some of the playwrights who have created a niche for themselves in the Indian theatre are Utpal Dutt, Girish Karnard, Badal Sircar , Vijay Tendulkar, C.L. Jos, N.N. Pillai & Cho.
DIRECTOR
Many of today's directors serve a multitude of roles . The majority of them are actors sswith distinguished career to their credit. Some of them are playwrights , plus design scenery, costumes & lighting. It may be more proper to describe the director in the modern Indian theatre as an individual performing a multitude of functions. Some of the Indian directors worth mentioning are: Ebrahim Alkazi, Girish Karnard, Cho, Utpal Dutt, B.V. Karnath, Bansi Kaul, M.K. Raina , Habib Tanvir, Vijay Mehta, Pearl Padmsee, Alyqe Padamsee. Although play production goes around all the year round in urban India, November to July is generally regarded as the prime theatre season.
