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Habib Tanvir and Chattisgarhi
Folk Theatre: Lasting Romance
It is to the credit of Habib Tanvir, a second generation migrant
from Swat, North Pakistan, that he rose to such heights in the cultural
world of India, becoming a poet of excellence, a unique writer of drama
and an outstanding stage actor and director. All this in the colloquial
languages of Urdu, Hindi, and Chattisgarhi dialect. So
steeped did he become, through his fascination with the indigenous folk
culture, that he began to master and mould it to the level of his unusual
intellect. His creativity and innovation was so remarkable that he was able
to transport folk drama, folk verse and folk music with powerful dexterity.
His interpretations and adaptations carried the known traditional village
drama forms, setting a completely new style in theatre writing, acting and
direction.It became what Peter Brooks calls Total Theatre.
The core of Habib's style is improvisation of the roles of village
characters, so that the actors (even though they are not formally trained in
stage acting) could carry out the desired performance according to his
interpretation. For instance a famous folk actor Govind Ram during a
production of "Charan Das Chor" once told Habib Bhai that "You tell us what
you want out of this movement. But don't tell us how to do it." Habib
Tanvir's instructions were that Charan the thief is to depict a frightened
man who is being tempted to break his oath in front of the Queen by eating
out of a golden plate. Seeing Govind Ram's performance actor-director
Shambhu Mitra commented that he had never seen such a beautiful mannerism as
expressed by the folk actor performing Charan Das, when he pushed away the
golden plate. Habib Tanvir's actors perform and live out the personality,
they do not merely act out the given role. Habib uses
the oral tradition of training the actors in their dialogues. He says, "I
read out to them and they improvise; then I repeat and hear them again and
again till they come very near the script." It is a labour of devotion and
patience on both sides, the director and actors getting immersed.
The Nacha Theatre workshop at Raipur, Madhya Pradesh was a bench-mark in
establishing a new kind of folk theatre. Habib Tanvir took a bold step of
conducting the Chattishgarh Folk Actors and Musicians Group keeping their
local dialogues and songs. Like the Jatra of Bengal, the Bhavai in Gujarat
and the Tamasha in Maharashtra, the Nacha is the theatre of peculiar form,
typical of this region – Madhya Pradesh. It indicates not merely dance but a
typical form of folk comedy that integrates music, dance and drama in a
total theatre. Raipur Workshop was an intensive exercise in theatre in which
collective production was attempted through a series of improvisations aimed
at the development of a script. A theme and a style of many under the
supervision of one man, Habib Tanvir. Some forty folk artistes, both
professional and non-professional, including people from the villages
farmers, blacksmiths, cobblers, and people from Raipur, Durg, Bhilai and
Rajnand Gaon formed the nucleus. |
Mother India and Modern India:
Student's
Meet: A Memorable Event of My Life:
Devendra
Vasave's:Adivasi Poems:
Translated by Prof. B.P.Jadhav
