Sunday, 31 May 2015
Saturday, 30 May 2015
Phtojournalists of Odisha | Sanjib Mukherjee
Phtojournalists of Odisha | Sanjib Mukherjee
1. Sanjeeb Mukherjee: (born March 2, 1959) started his
career as a photographer in Kolkata. He shifted base to Bhubaneswar as he joined Odia daily Sambad in 1984. He left Sambad
in early nineties to work free lance. His photographs have appeared in several
national and international publications. Presently he is working for The Telegraph.
He
was born in Hooghly, West Bengal
Here are some of his photographs:
Photojournalists of Odisa | Ashok Panda
Photojournalists of Odisha |Ashok Panda
Ashok Panda (born 28.01.1969), presently works as Chief Staff Photographer of Odia daily Samaya and contributes photographs to several State level and national newspapers and websites. He began his professional career as a photojournalist with Eastern Press Agency (1984-1995) and then joined Samaya (1996). He also contributed to The
Asian Age (1997-2000) and The Times of India (2000-2011) and several other publications like The Patriot, Newstimes, Eenadu and Sanmarg.
His photographs of 1999 Orissa Super cyclone made him known in media circle all over the country. Later he held several exhibitions of selected photographs of the Super Cyclone titled 'Mahatandav'. He had two more exhibitions titled 'The Camera Cries: Five Years of Orissa Tragety' (2001) and 'Sky is the Limit'(2002). All his exhibitions won popular and critical acclaim.
He has received several awards including Best Photographer Award by www.orissadiary.com (2011) and Prerana (2011), Panchama Veda Best Photography Award (2010), Satabdira Kalakara Best Photographer Award (2010). He has also won the Photography Contest organised by Ministry of I & B on 2000.
He has received several awards including Best Photographer Award by www.orissadiary.com (2011) and Prerana (2011), Panchama Veda Best Photography Award (2010), Satabdira Kalakara Best Photographer Award (2010). He has also won the Photography Contest organised by Ministry of I & B on 2000.
Born at Baisingha, Mayurbhanj to Pitambar Panda and Annapurna Panda, he studied at ITI, Balasore. He did a Diploma in Photography and Videography from State Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training.
Here are some of his photographs:
Photojournalists of Odisha | Jitendra Mohanty
Photojournalists of Odisha | Jitendra Mohanty
Jitendra Kumar Mohanty (born 1976) started photography as
a hobby. He joined Odia daily Mahabharata and
then Samaya in 2006. He has had four
photo exhibitions till early 2015 titled Destitute, Nature's Fury, Platform Life and Life in Myriad Colours.
His photographs of the devastating flood in Odisha in 2011. and cyclonic storm Phailin in October 2013 made him known in discerning photography circle.
His photographs of the devastating flood in Odisha in 2011. and cyclonic storm Phailin in October 2013 made him known in discerning photography circle.
Here are some of his photographs:
Friday, 29 May 2015
History of Hindi Journalism
History of Hindi Journalism
Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee
The first Hindi newspaper Oodhund Martand,
a weekly was published in Kolkata on May 30, 1826 ‘in the interest of
Hindustanis’. However, its editor Yugal Kishore Shukla (Jooghol Kishore Sookool-
in some documents) faced many difficulties in running it. He was not allowed
postal concession and had to close down the paper within a year. He made an
attempt to start another paper in 1850 called Samyadani Martand but this
also failed.
The second Hindi newspaper Bangadoot was published
in 1829 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Dwarika Prasad Thakore with Nilratan Haldar
as its editor. Besides Hindi, it was also published in English, Bengali and
Persian.
The first Hindi daily Samachar Sudha Varshan came
out in June 1854 from Kolkata with Shyam Sundar Sen as its editor and publisher.
It was a bilingual paper in which market and shipping reports were published in
Hindi, the rest in Bengali.
Between 1850 and 1857 a number of Hindi
Newspaper were published. Among them were Benaras Akbar, Sudhakar
Tatwa Bodhini, Patrika and Sathya. Benaras Akhbar (1849) was the first paper to first paper to
introduce Devnagari script in the North-West provinces. Some papers of this
time used to carry both a Hindi and Urdu name and used to publish news in both
languages in parallel columns, for example Sarvopkarak
(Mufid-ul-Khaliaq), published from Agra in 1861 and the Bharat Khandamitra (Ab-i-hayat-i-Hind),
published in 1864. But this trend did not last long.
A literary magazine which set the standard for
Hindi Journals in the early year of century was Saraswathi, a monthly edited by Mahavir Prasad Dwibedy. It
standardised the style and pattern of Hindi journalism and developed literary
criticism and book reviews. It became the torchbearer for later day Hindi
journalists who cultivated its prose style. Newspapers like Bharat Mitra (1878), Sarsudhanidhi (1879), Uchit Wakta (1880) and Hindi Bangavasi (1890) were published
from Calcutta during the last three decades of 19th century. Bharat
Mitra, published from Calcutta became the leading Hindi newspaper of the
time under the dynamic stewardship of its early editors, Balmukund Gupta and
Ambika Prasad Bajpai.”Some 150papers and journals were either started or
restarted between 1884 and 1894. The contents of most of these papers were
concerned with social or religious subjects, many of them were sectional, some
were political and a few set a high literary standard.”[1]
The beginning of the new century saw the birth
of many Hindi dailies in Bombay, Calcutta and Patna. The more prominent among
them were Sri Venkateswar Samachar and Calcutta Samachar. Viswamitra, which was
started after the Calcutta Samachar became defunct, offered serious
competition to Bharat Mitra from 1918.
Hindi journalism made rapid progress during the First
World War period and many outstanding journalists came to the fore including
Ganga Prasad Gupta, Nanda Kumar Deo Dharma, M. P. Dwivedi, Hari Krishna Jouhar, Chhote Ram
Shukla, Indra Vidyavachaspati, Shri Ram Pandey, Lakshminarayan Garde and
Narmada Prasad Misra. One of the foremost Hindi journalists
who earned a name for his patriotism was Ganesh Shanker Vidyarthi. In 1913, he
brought out weekly Pratap from
Kanpur. He made the supreme sacrifice in 1931 in the cause of Hindu-Muslim
unity. Krishna Dutt Paliwal brought out Sainik from Agra which became a staunch
propagator of nationalism in Western U. P. The noted Congress leader, Swami
Shradhanand, started the publication of Hindi journal Vir Arjun and Urdu journal Tej.
After the assassination of Swami Shradhanand, Vidyavachaspathi and Lala
Deshbandhu Gupta, both prominent Congress leaders continued the publication of
these journals.
At the turn of the century
almost all Calcutta based Hindi newspapers went vocal against the suppressive
and divisive policies of the Raj. This marked the beginning – in 1907- of two
outstanding magazines: Nrisinha and Devnagar. Nrisinha edited by Ambika
Prasad Vajpayee, a stauch supporter of Lokmanya Tilak was a political magazine
and it joined the protest against British rule. Devnagar on the other hand tried to work on a uniform script.[2]
In 1920, the Aj was started in Banaras.
It played a notable part in the freedom struggle. Its first editor was Sri
Prakasa, a great freedom fighter who occupied positions of power and prestige
in free India. He was assisted by Babu Rao Vishnu Parakar whose contribution to
the development of Hindi Journalism was considerable. Espousing the national
cause and waging a never-ending battle with the alien rulers, the Aj was
a bulwark of the Indian National
Congress and its main forum to spread the message of freedom to the
Hindi-speaking masses of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Nepal. It set
the tone and style for Hindi Journalism and was acclaimed for its impartial
objective reporting and illuminating and fearless editorials. A balanced
blending of national and international news was one of its strong features.
In Patna the Desh, a weekly, was an
influential journal and the mouthpiece of the Congress. It was founded by Babu
Rajendra Prasad and his friends in 1920. But it was not a profitable venture
and had to close down.
In 1924 there were 102 Hindi newspapers; four of
them were dailies (AJ, Banaras, Swatantra, Calcutta, Arjun,
Delhi and Calcutta Samachar, Calcutta) According to one historian, until 1926, Hindi dailies were
not financially successful. “Their get
up and printing was poor, the reading material not quite up to the mark and the
editorials unwieldy and lengthy. The weeklies were better edited and got up.”
Among the well-known better produced weeklies were Bhavishya (Kanpur), Karmaveer
(Khandwa) and Sainik (Agra). Among the important Hindi dailies which
flourished in 1930 were: Viswamitra and Bharat Mitra (Calcutta), Savadho
Bharat (Bombay). Lokkat (Jabalpur), Variman (Kanpur), Milap
(Lahore) besides AJ (Banaras), Arjun(Delhi)
and Lokmanya (Calcutta).
As freedom struggle gained
momentum, there
was a steady rise of Hindi journalism both in terms of quality and quantity.
More number of Hindi publications took birth in almost all North Indian states
and also in Maharashtra, Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh, especially Hyderabad.
Hindi publications like other language publications by and large supported
Nationalist movement and faced the suppression of the British rulers. One
of the important Hindi dailies to be published from the capital was Hindustan,
sister newspaper of the Hindustan Times,
started in 1936. Wide news coverage and
a variety of special features marked the Hindustan.
Started in 1940, Aryavari of Patna was
a sister publication of the Indian Nation
and enjoyed considerable influence.
Hindi journalism grew more
rapidly after independence. After independence Hindi was adopted as the official language of
India.[3]
This also helped to spread Hindi language nationwide. The Nav Bharat Times of the Times of India
group started in Delhi in 1950. The Amrita
Patrika of Allahabad was another notable Hindi daily which was well-known
for its trenchant editorials. By 1964 Hindi had the largest number of newspapers among language
papers. The trend of publishing multiple editions from different states helped
Hindi newspapers to increase their reach and circulation.
According to RNI (Registrar of Newspapers in
India) the total number of publications in Hindi was 27,527 in 2007-8 including
3418 daily newspapers and 12793 weeklies.
By mid 2011 Hindi daily Dainik Jagran claimed to be the largest read newspaper of the
world. Six out of the top ten newspapers with highest number of readership in
India were Hindi. According to IRS (Indian Readership Survey Q-4)[4]
the top ten largest read Hindi newspapers are: Dainik Jagran[5] (readership: 164.1 lakh), Dainik
Bhaskar[6]
(146 lakh), Hindustan[7]
(120.4 lakh), Amar Ujala [8]
(88.4 lakh), Rajasthan Patrika[9]
( 68.47 lakh), Punjab Kesari (33.30 lakh), Navbharat
Times[10]
(25.73 lakh) Prabhat Khabar[11] (21.87
lakh), Patrika (17.87 lakh) and Nai Dunia[12]
(16.49 lakh). All of the newspapers have multiple editions from different
cities and states.
Hindi
newspapers are published from several states. Besides the North Indian Hindi
belt, sizable numbers of Hindi publications are there in West Bengal,
Maharashtra, Gujarat and other states. There are two good Hindi dailies
from Hyderabad – Swatantra Vaartha
and Milap. Kolkata based Sanmarg has an edition from Bhubaneswar,
Odisha too. Assam also had Hindi newspapers. Dainik Lokamanya was the first Hindi newspaper of Assam. It was
published in 1963 in Guwahati by Pandit Ramshankar Tripathi. The four page
broadsheet was priced 10 paisa. It survived only for few months.
Radio: Broadcasting
started in India in June 1923 with programmes by the Radio Club of Bombay,
followed by other radio clubs. Then, by an agreement of 1926 the private Indian
Broadcasting Company (IBC) was granted permission to operate two radio
stations; the Bombay station was inaugurated on 23 July 1927, the Calcutta station
followed. The first ever news bulletin in the country went on the air from the
Bombay Station on July 23, 1927 under IBC. Until 1935, two bulletins, one each
in English and Hindustani were broadcast from Bombay and a bulletin in Bengali
was broadcast from Calcutta. IBC went into liquidation in March, 1930 following
which broadcasting came under the direct control of the Government of India.
The service was designated as the Indian State Broadcasting Service. It was
renamed All India Radio (AIR) on June 8, 1936.[13]
The real breakthrough in news
broadcasting came after January 1936 when the first news bulletin from the
Delhi Station went on the air on January 19, 1936 coinciding with the starting
of its transmission. Besides, news bulletins in English and Hindustani, talks
on current affairs were also started from the Station in both the languages. When
India became independent in 1947 the AIR network had only six stations (in
Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lucknow, and Tiruchi).
AIR made rapid progress after
independence. By 2008-09 it had 231 radio stations. The entertainment channel
of AIR, Vividh Bharati (started in October 1957) helped in popularizing Hindi
music and language through its film music based programmes. AIR FM Rainbow and
FM Gold channels also had large Hindi language content. In India, All India Radio - the public service
broadcaster- had monopoly on radio broadcast, till 2000. In May 2000, the
Government of India opened the sector for participation by the private FM
broadcasters and offered 108 frequencies in 40 cities for open tender bidding.
The
first private FM station in India was Radio City, which started functioning in
Bangalore in 2001. Listenership grew. However, the government policy of
charging higher licensing fee made private radio stations financially unviable.
Of the 108 licenses issued, only 22 became operational in 12 cities. In the
second phase of development in 2005, Government became flexible and
accommodating, kick starting rapid expansion of radio in private domain. With
the new industry-friendly policies, number of radio stations increased. By end 2009, a total of 248 private FM
stations and 171 FM transmitters of AIR stations were operational in the
country. Maharashtra had the largest number of private FM stations (31)
followed by Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (21 each) and Rajasthan (19). Almost
all private FM stations across the country have Hindi music as part of their
content. In Hindi belt, it is the staple.
Television: Terrestrial television in India started with the
experimental telecast starting in Delhi on 15 September 1959. The regular daily
transmission started in 1965 as a part of All India Radio (AIR). The television
service was extended to Bombay (now Mumbai) and Amritsar in 1972. Till 1975, only
seven Indian cities had a television service and Doordarshan remained the sole
provider of television in India. Television services were separated from AIR in
1976. National telecasts and colour transmission were introduced in 1982.
Serials like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Humlog were very popular.
The
next decade saw the growth and spread of satellite television channels both in
government and private domain, thanks to a series of economic and social
reforms starting in 1991, which allowed private and foreign broadcasters to
engage in operations in India. Foreign channels like CNN, Star TV and domestic
channels such as Zee TV and Sun TV started satellite broadcasts. Starting with
41 sets in 1962 and one channel, by 1991 TV in India covered more than 70
million homes giving a viewing population of more than 400 million individuals
through more than 100 channels. The next decade saw a more rapid expansion-
both vertical and horizontal. Both the number of audience, and channels grew at
a break neck speed.
By mid
2011, there were
over 100 Hindi news channels including Aaj Tak,
IBN-7, Azad NEWS, Maurya Tv, AryanNews, News 7 Network, Khoj India, India TV,
Raftaar News Channel, Live India, NDTV India, India News, News 24, Press TV, Sudarshan
News, Sahara Samay, STAR News, Zee News, Zee Business, DD News, Total TV, A2Z
News, Crime Nazar News, Channel No. 1, S-7 News, Mahua news, ETV Bihar, Time
Today, DayNightnews, Jansandesh.tv, GNN News, P7, TV 24 News, newsxpress, tv9 Mumbai, Sea News, Taaza TV, etc.
Newmedia: Rajasthan Patrika claims be the first Hindi newspaper to go online
in 1999. By early 2012, almost all major Hindi newspapers, television channels
and radio stations had their presence on cyber world. Several newspapers had
e-paper version. There were numerous Hindi language news sites. Several newspapers
like Raipur based Deshabandhu had
started disseminating news on mobile platform either as a free service or as a
paid service.
***
The author, a journalist turned media
academician presently heads the Eastern India campus of Indian Institute of
Mass Communication (IIMC), located at Dhenkanal, Odisha.
He can be contacted at mrinaliimc@yahoo.in
15 May, 2012
This article was also published in 'Vidura'.
[1]
History of Indian Journalism, J.Natarajan, Publications Division, Delhi, 2000
[2]
Justice Sarada Charan Mitra’s organization Ek Lipi Vistar Parishad, established
in 1905 to promote the cause of Independence and present write-ups of various
languages in a uniform script, Devnagari lauched the magazine Devnagar as the
parishad mouthpiece in 1907. The Origin
and Growth of Hindi Journalism in Kolkata, Prof(Dr.) Krishna Bihari Mishra,
Press Club, Kolkata, 2005
[3] Article
343(1) of the Constitution provides that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be
the Official Language of the Union.
[4] http://mruc.net/irs2011q4_%20toplines.pdf
[5] Dainik Jagran was founded by Puranchandra
Gupta in Jhansi in 1942. In 1947 Dainik Jagran shifted its headquarters to
Kanpur, where it launched its second edition on 21 September 1947. Currently,
Dainik Jagran’s 36 editions are published across eleven states of India.
[6] Dainik Bhaskar was first published in
Bhopal and Gwalior of the central province. The newspaper was launched in year
1956 to fulfill the need for a Hindi language daily, by the name Subah Savere
in Bhopal and Good Morning India in Gwalior in year 1957, it was renamed as Bhaskar
Samachar In 1958, it was renamed as Dainik Bhaskar
[7]
The Hindi daily Hindustan was launched in 1936.
[8] Amar Ujala was launched on April 18,
1948. Presently it has a strong base in Western UP and Uttaranchal.
[9] Rajasthan Patrika was first published as
an evening newspaper on 7th March 1956. It became a morning newspaper in 1964.
[10] Navbharat Times was published on the 3rd
of April, 1947. It was the only Hindi publication those days to use rotary
machines for producing the paper. A skeletal staff of 12 people used to produce
a 6 pager newspaper which was then sold for one anna. It was the first Hindi
newspaper to have editions in Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna and Jaipur. However,
later several of these editions were closed.
[11] Pravat Khabar was founded in August 1984
in Ranchi (presently the capital of Jharkhand). The newspaper unearthed Fodder
Scam in Bihar 1992. By 2011 it had several editions- Ranchi (1984), Jamshedpur (1995), Patna(1996), Dhanbad (1999), Kolkata (2000), Deoghar( 2004), Siliguri (2006), Muzaffarpur (2010) Bhagalpur (2010)
[12] Naidunia was founded in Indore, Madhya
Pradesh on 5 June 1947 by Babu Labhchand
Chhajlani and Shri Basantilal Sethia. By 2011 it had over 15 editions from
several cities across several provinces.
Essay | Theatre and Cinema
Theatre and Cinema in
India:
No Comparing, No Comparing; Only touching, Only Touching
Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee
Let me first explain the weird sounding title. There was
this line from a popular (Ok, call it low brow) Hindi film song: No touching,
no touching; only seeing, only seeing. The title of this paper is inspired (no
copy, no copy) by this line.
Now let me say, what I’ll not attempt to do in this essay
and why: I shall not put theatre against cinema. Why? Because... let me quote from
a blog:
I keep on saying that
comparing theatre with cinema is a donkey work. They are simply different and
no one can prove which of the two (theatre or cinema) has more advantages or is
of greater value. Of course, every person has his own preferences among various
kinds of modern entertainment, but there is no use comparing the art forms
mentioned above. Have you ever tried to compare a hand with a leg, to figure
out which one is more useful? Do you find such a task sensible? The same thing
happens when we begin to place theatre against cinema. These forms of art were
born in different epochs, by different generations. But they both reflect people’s
needs and demands though they employ different techniques, abilities,
professional skills of actors as well as they have different aims and origin.
Theatre gave rise to many other kinds of entertainment including cinema so it
would be too ungrateful for cinematograph to disparage its own ‘mother’.[1]
What I shall try to do is to discuss the relationship
between theatre and cinema in Indian context. My argument is: theatre and film
are not engaged in an inherently antagonistic, mutually exclusive relationship.
They share a very close relationship, much more than Robert Knoff has
suggested.[2]
Knopf has the premise that this relationship "must be based not only on
the history and theory of the two media but also on the contributions of the
artists who have been most influential in them," and that each artist's
contribution is "personal, depending upon the 'lens' through which he or
she views the two media"
I’ll try to go two steps further. First, thematically both
the media are very close. Both try to portray piece of life, experience. Both
aim to engage people’s attention by ‘showing’ a story, by sharing an
experience, etc. Second, both try to experiment with narrative form and
structure almost in similar fashion.
Of course the two art forms are different and the difference
is growing at one level and receding at the other. I’ll try to resolve the
paradox later. First the differences.
·
Cinema speaks to millions at the same time
whereas a theatrical performance at best can cater to a few hundred at a time. So,
the impact of cinema is more than theatre.
·
You see flesh and blood actors in theatre
performing live before you. Cinema is moving pictures, which will remain the
same ten or twenty or even hundred years hence. Cinema stands before time
always judged where as the theatre performance is in a sense ephemeral. Therefore it creates a strong feeling of
nostalgia.
·
More people go to the cinema because it offers
more visual entertainment through visual effects, whereas theatre offers more
speech and real eye-contact.
A brief note about the origin of both the art forms will not
probably be out of place here.
Origin of Theatre in
India
Theatre in India has a tradition going back to at least 5000 years. It
began with Rigvedic
dialogue hymns during the Vedic
period.The earliest book on dramaturgy anywhere in the world Natya
Shastra, i.e., the grammar or the holy book of theatre by Bharat Muni
(approximately between 2000 B.C. and 4th Century A.D.) provides detailed
treatise on drama, performance and visual art form. It talks about rasa and using human body in kinetic
form.
Theatre
in India started as a narrative form with a distinct story line. Besides
acting, reciting, singing and dancing were integral elements of the Indian
theatre almost from the beginning. Theatre in India has encompassed all the
other forms of literature and fine arts into its physical presentation:
literature, mime, music, dance, movement, painting, sculpture and architecture
- all mixed into one and being called natya
or theatre in English. This emphasis on narrative elements and integration of
different performing and plastic art forms made Indian theatre super sensory
right from the beginning.
Hindu
theorists from earliest times talk of two theories: lokadharmi and natya dharmi.[3] Lokadharmi
refers to replicating common men and women and their behavioural pattern. Natyadharmi refers to symbolic, stylised
representation. Both the forms found expression in different format throughout
the country, the former in folk form and the later in classical form.
Phase
I, the classical period includes the writing and practice of theatre up to
about 1000 A.D., almost based on rules, regulations and modifications handed by
Natya Shastra. They apply to the writing of plays, performance spaces and
conventions of staging plays. Playwrights such as Bhasa, Kalidasa, Shudraka,
Vishakhadatta and Bhavabhuti contributed to a great measure through their
dramatic pieces in Sanskrit. They based their plots on the epics, history, folk
tales and legends. The audience was already familiar with the story. Therefore,
a theatre language required a visual presentation through gestures, mime and
movement. The actor was supposed to be well-versed in all the fine arts. In a
way, it was a picture of total theatre. The noted German playwright and
director Brecht evolved his theory of ‘Epic Theatre’ from these sources.
Phase II involves theatre based on oral traditions. It was performed from about
1000 A.D. onwards upto 1700 A.D. and beyond. Emergence of this kind of theatre
is linked with the change of political set up in India as well as the coming
into existence of different regional languages in all parts of the country.
Several regional languages emerged during this period. As the languages were
new, it was too early to expect any writing in those languages. That is why
this whole period is known as folk or traditional, i.e., theatre being handed
over from generation to generation through an oral tradition. Another major
change in the domain of presentation also took place with this kind of
traditional theatre. The classical theatre based on Natya Shastra was much
more sophisticated and rigid in its form. It aimed at an elite audience with a
heightened sense of aesthetics. Folk or traditional theatre evolved out of
rural roots. It aimed at unbridled entertainment without much attention to the
grammar and rules. Though folk theatre used music, mime, movement, dance and
narrative elements, it was more simple, immediate and improvisational even to
the extent of being contemporary. Moreover, whereas the classical theatre was
almost similar in its presentation in all parts of India at a particular time,
the traditional theatre took to different presentational methods.[4] Another factor that
contributed to the change was invasion. During the Middle Ages,
the Indian
subcontinent was invaded a number of times. Unlike
in most other places of the world, the invaders here stayed on and made the sub
continent their home. This played a major role in shaping of Indian
culture and heritage
as medieval India experienced a grand fusion with the invaders from the Middle East
and Central
Asia. It impacted the theatre form too both thematically and
presentation wise. What emerged was a kaleidoscope of performing arts, known by
the umbrella term folk theatre.
Phase
III of theatre in India was again linked with a change in the political set up.
The time span of about 200 years under the British rule brought the Indian
theatre into direct contact with the western theatre. For the first time in
India, the writing and practice of theatre was geared fully towards realistic
or naturalistic presentation. Realism or naturalism was not totally absent in
our tradition. However, in this phase, realism got an extra dimension. The
usual storyline underwent a change. It was no more woven around big heroes and
gods, but had become a picture of common man. It portrayed a new and immediate
reality. This phase also saw theatre used as an instrument of protest and mass
uprising against alien rule. To resist, the British Government imposed "Dramatic
Performances Act" in 1876. From the latter half of
the 19th century, theatre in India experienced both horizontal and vertical
growth. But ironically there were inner conflicts over several key questions
like: a. the purpose of theatre: entertainment or education, b. the form:
realistic or stylistic, c. the narrative style: Indian or western, d. the funding:
state-sponsored or audience-paid. The conflict grew after independence.
The
theatre in contemporary India encompasses a combination of the three different
phases of its evolution. The post independence theatre incorporated much of the folk and the Sanskrit
traditions but,
in
essence, retained the realist western tradition. Play wrights like Badal
Sarkar, Shambhu Mitra, Vijay Tendullcar, B.V.Karant, Ibrahim Alkazi, Girish
Karnad and Utpal Dutt etc. made new experiments in the theatrical devices.
The decade after the
seventies witnessed an important development when theatre broke out of the
auditoria and surfaced on the open streets and lanes. This heralded a
significant change in the world of theatres by adding a new dimension. But it
did not in any way diminish the significance of the stage based plays. The
eighties and nineties saw the growth of television, which impacted theatre in
several ways. From content to form to the very nature and level of engagement
of the theatre persons with their art- television and film impacted theatre in
every which way.
Theatre in India is going
through an interesting phase now, a phase of myriad influences and churning,
reflecting myriad hues.
It was in the Phase III of theatre in India that cinema
emerged. Therefore in initial period cinema in India was heavily influenced by
theatre both in content, narrative style and form. The larger than life
presentation of the hero, the melo drama, over the top acting, use of music and
dance- they are all influences of theatre in India. Parsee theatre impacted
early Hindi Films quite heavily. So did Bengali and Gujarati theatre.
In fact, theatre impacted early cinema everywhere including
Hollywood. The reasons are simple, really. The play wrights, actors, musicians,
music directors of theatre were engaged in cinema and they brought in their bag
of skills and tried to see if it fits the new medium. Some fitted, some did
not. Gradually cinema evolved as a separate medium of art with its own grammar,
narrative style and own space. Interestingly, it is now, more than a century
after the first cinema hit the screen- it is trying to rediscover the
techniques of theatre. About that, later.
Origin of Cinema in
India
History of Indian cinema dated back to the year 1896. The
Lumiere Brothers first demonstrated the art of cinema to the sub continent.
Bombay was the first Indian city that screened Cinematography, six short films
by the Lumiere Brothers. The success of these films led to the screening of
more foreign films, for instance, Vitagraph by James B. Stewart and
Moto-Photoscope by Ted Hughes.
The initial period of Indian cinema saw the pioneering
efforts of Save Dada (Harischandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar). He made two short
films as early as in 1897. The first short films in India were directed by
Hiralal Sen, starting with Flower of Persia (1898). In 1900 the Indian
entertainment sector underwent huge changes. It was Dadasaheb Phalke, who took
Indian cinema to new heights. Thus the path breaking film of the silent era, Raja Harishchandra, was released in
1913. During this time and the era of the talkies the main sources for Indian
films were the mythological texts. The introduction of new technology in this
domain and the rapid growth of the Indian cinema led to the end of the silent
era and ushered in the era of the talkies. Now one could hear the actors and
actresses talk, laugh, sing and cry. It changed the way people used to engage
with cinema. Forever. Initially films were made in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and
Telugu and these films proved to be phenomenal successes. [5]
Later, films were also made in other languages. Colour films began to be made
in 1930s. By the next millennium, technology had advanced. Films were made in
3D for more realistic, almost ‘real-like’ feeling. From bulky celluloid cans,
films were stored and distributed in digitized format through internet.
Technology played (and continue to play) an important role in the development
of cinema.
Thematically, the initial Indian films heavily depended on
mythological and historical stories. Gradually social theme, contemporary
issues found place. By late 1940s films in India were made in various languages
but the religious influence was predominant. With struggle for independence the
entire scenario altered. Indian cinema now saw films based on the then contemporary
social issues. Movies no longer were limited to the periphery of entertainment;
they were now potent instruments to educate the masses as well.
By 1960s realistic cinema gained much ground. There was a
strong movement and market for socially relevant cinema till 1970s. Mainstream
cinema always cared for entertainment. But the packaging usually catered to the
whole family, and usually it revolved round a good story. Things began to
change in 1980s with the emergence of VCD (Video CD Players) and television in
India. VCD made viewing films easy. One
could see a film at one’s convenience sitting at home. No longer had one had to
visit a movie hall at a particular time to watch a movie. Television serials became popular in 1980s
and cable and satellite television started beaming cinema to people’s drawing
rooms. These factors held the ‘educated, middle class, family viewer’ audience
at home. Movie halls gradually lost audience. It was a challenge for mainstream
cinema producers. They had to attract audience to movie halls. In this
situation they looked at the lowest common denominator factor in entertainment.
They tried to put in masala to
attract the kind of audience who, they thought would visit movie halls.
And the masala was: sex and violence. Thus emerged the violence, the
sensual depiction, the item numbers, etc. Not that these were not there in Indian films
earlier. It was. But now it became the main course. The staple.
Things began to change to some extent by the new millennium.
Interestingly, television was mainly responsible for the change. It provided a commercially viable outlet for
‘different’ films. So did the multiplexes. Cinema in India is in a very
interesting and fluid phase. ‘Different’ is the new mainstream now.
Before I elaborate this point, and try to highlight the
‘touching’ points of cinema and theatre, let me tell you that in India, like in
Hollywood and many European countries films have been made out of plays. Girish
Kannad's Nagmandal has inspired
several movies. The recent Hindi movie Oh
My God is based on a Gujarati drama. Among the Theatre artists who have
made big in Cinema are Balraj
Sahani, Utpal Roy, Nassiruddin Shah, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Bijoy Mohanty
(Odia).
Present Status and
can we make the relationship more intimate?
Theatre and films have had close relationship as art forms
engaged with storytelling and visual presentation. Though both have grown and
experimented further in exploring its strengths as performing and visual
medium, the relationship exists at a metaphorical level.
Can the relationship be made more intimate, which can help
both media in their engagement with audience, in their growth? I am leaving the
question: is it at all desirable to further debate and offering some
suggestions, based on experiments carried out elsewhere.
Theatres can be
filmed and released as regular cinema. As Charles Spencer says, watching
theatre on a cinema screen can be even better than the live event.[6]
He writes:
When the National Theatre
unveiled plans to film productions and relay them live by satellite to cinemas
in Britain and 21 other countries, I was sceptical. I feared the results would
seem excessively stagy and lack the excitement of watching actors in the flesh.
How wrong I
was. The Esher Odeon was almost packed, and the performance of Dion
Boucicault’s hilarious 19th-century comedy London Assurance was as entertaining
on screen as it had been in the theatre. What’s more, there was a real sense of
the live event about it. The cinema audience actually clapped at the end, and
there was a sense of shared laughter and genuine community one rarely
experiences at the flicks.
Can we try something like this in India? Doordarshan did try
something like this when it put on air plays. But as far as I know, it has not
been attempted on regular cinema halls. Can we film Bibhas Chakravorty’s Hamlet and screen it across the country.
Technologically it is possible now in a cost effective way, thanks to
internet-based distribution system. Will the audience love it? I do not know.
But it is definitely worth a try.
The reverse can also be tried. Let us stage a Bhuter Bhabisyat or even a Dabang.
The contemporary opera parties in Odisha and West Bengal have done
something like this. Can the avant-garde theatre
directors think about this?
***
The author, a journalist turned media
academician writes fiction, plays and television screen play. He presently
heads the Eastern India campus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication
(IIMC), located at Dhenkanal, Odisha, India.
20 December 2012
Sanchar
Marg, Dhenkanal 759 001, Odisha.
E-Mail: mrinaliimc@yahoo.in|Mobile: 91 94370
26194
[1]
http://groupa.ucoz.co.uk/publ/theatre_vs_cinema/1-1-0-13
[2]
Theater and Film: A
Comparative Anthology, Edited by Robert Knopf, New Haven, Yale University
Press, 2005
[3]
http://www.culturopedia.com/Theatre/theatre_intro.html
[4]
There is, however, a pattern. All the folk and traditional forms in northern
India are mainly vocal, i.e., singing and recitation-based like Ramlila,
Rasleela, Bhand Nautanki and Wang without any complicated gestures or movements
and elements of dance.
[5]
http://www.indianetzone.com/2/history_indian_cinema.htm
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