Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

My audience is my people: Kanhailal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Noted drama director Haisnam Kanhailal has said his plays are not spectacles manufactured for a foreign audience.

He was speaking at an open forum organised in connection with the National Theatre Festival here on Thursday.

A distorted amalgam of Indian folk arts put together for an American audience did not make drama. “The audience I target is my own people,” Mr. Kanhailal said. Folk arts in different places were created for the people of that land by their predecessors.

“I have learnt a lot from the folk traditions of the north eastern States. Those lessons have enriched my characters,” he said.

Drama or art is not a mere copying of life or of a book. Rabindranath Tagore’s creations, for instance, keep very high philosophical and ideological norms. However, he was able to stage Tagore’s play ‘Dak Ghar’ using village artistes from western India, the director said. But ‘Dak Ghar’ is not a mere dramatisation or a copying of Tagore’s work. It was through the sheer dint of hard work that the village artistes were able to breathe life into that play, he said.

After showcasing, for the past 11 days, dramas with diverse backgrounds, the National Theatre Festival came to a close on Thursday. Studio plays that could be viewed from all four sides were staged for the first time in the capital city, during the festival.

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My audience is my people: Kanhailal

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