The right mix
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Amitava Dasgupta received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for his contribution to Indian theatre.
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What we need is a theatrical art for life's sake, not an art for art's sake.Amitava Dasgupta
A FEAT RECOGNISED Amitava Dasgupta receiving the Sangeet Natak Akademi award from the President.
Indian theatre was recognised once again when veteran dramatist Amitava Dasgupta received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for his contribution to Indian theatre as a director this past week at Kamani auditorium, New Delhi.
So, what ignited his passion for theatre? Here is what he says about it, "My father was highly educated and my mother appreciated the art of the performer and she was very good at recitation. Shakespeare and his works were frequently talked about in our home. This atmosphere developed in me a love for theatre. As I grew up, theatre became my passion."Born in Pune in 1947, Dasgutpa was brought up and educated in Kolkata from where he did his graduation. As a young man he was attracted towards Marxist-Leninist ideology as practised and interpreted by the Naxalite movement in the early 1970s in West Bengal. However, he was compelled to leave Kolkata on political grounds and came to Delhi.
He wanted a platform to raise his voice against political oppression and a language that was understood by the largest number of Indians. He recalls, "I decided to stay in Delhi, using theatre as my platform, staging plays in Hindi. As a political and social activist I decided to follow Bertolt Brecht's concept of Epic Theatre and formed Brechtian Mirror in 1971. I found two important aspects of Brechtian theatre - it has a satirical approach towards bourgeois society and culture. And its theory of alienation conveys a message to enable the audience to reflect on the human condition in a class society.".
He began his creative journey through his fascination and participation in the Jatra. "Over the years, I have discovered that there is a similarity between the Epic Theatre and our folk theatre: both use alienation effect to bring about socio-political awakening in the audience.But little work has been done to theorise the creative elements of our centuries-old folk tradition. Today, more than 75 per cent of rare folk forms of India are extinct," rues Dasgupta.
Wearing many hats
Deeply involved in the study and preservation of folk theatre, which he calls Grameen Natak, he has worked for the restoration of folk theatre forms in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
Amitava has taken a course in theatre direction from the National School of Drama. Apart from directing, he is a set designer and stage music composer too. He got the Best Set Design award from Sahitya Kala Parishad in 1986 and the Best Director award from Bharatiya Natya Sangh in 1990. His music repertoire is rich and varied. He reasons, "In my theatre I use the music sung by our folk singers for the common man in our vast rural landscape."
A visiting faculty member at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy for Administration, Mussoorie, he has also directed a feature film, "Abua Birsa", capturing the life and time of Birsa Munda and his struggle against British imperialism.His group, Brechtian Mirror, has produced over 40 plays, some of which like Euripides's "Iphigenial in Aulis and Bacchae", Manoj Mitra's "Madhukanthi Sanp" and Frederic Duranmatt's "The Physicists" are remarkable for their directorial brilliance. His "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Brecht" is considered as a groundbreaking production for the creative blending of the elements of Brechtian theatre with the Jatra form of Bengal. Sixty years on, Amitava's enthusiasm for theatre and his criticism of the establishment have not dimmed. He says passionately, "Our theatre has not yet succeeded to give voice to the oppressed. We need to forge a truly people's theatre to bring about consciousness among the masses to create a better future for them."
DIWAN SINGH BAJELI
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