A three-day seminar “Marginal in the Market of Theatre” held
at 17th Bharat Rang
Mahotsav
New
Delhi, February 10, 2015: 17th
Bharat Rang Mahotsav’s first phase of Allied events ended on 10th
February 2015 with a three day seminar
on “Marginal in the Market of Theatre” that was held on the question of
misrepresentation of marginal voices in fields e.g., theatre, cinema,
literature and visual art among others. Speakers for the three day seminar included
Sanjay Pawar, Arjun Dev Charan, Trina Nileena Banerjee, Civic Chandran, Rahul
Roy, Amar Kanwar, Dr Hanne M.de Bruin-Rajagopal, Tripurari Sharma, Padma
VenkataramanMangai, AnjumKatyal, Ajay Mandvi, while Prof.WamanKendre,
LaxmanGaikwad, Bishnupriya Paul, UshaGanguli, Feisal Alkazi& R Sreedhar chaired
the sessions respectively. All the three days of seminar were divided into two
sessions each with first session starting from 11.30am to 1.00pm and the second
session from 2.00pm to 3.30pm.
The first day of the seminar
started with a positive note from the Prof.
Waman Kendre, Director, National School of Drama, “This seminar is about those dimensions which we have
always denied as a part of our Indian Theatre. Most of the work to promote
Theatre as a folk tradition has been done by these Nomadic communities, marginalised,
but their contribution was never considered. Lakhs of such communities are
there whose existence and voices were never heard and were never given a
platform to stand out. We have invited such visionaries who have been working
for such communities so that we can learn what we can do to give a platform to
these silent voices.”
The session
was taken forward by the speakers Sanjay Pawar and Arjun Dev Charan. They
shared their testimonies and experiences with theatre that they want to bring
in light through the session and talked about how in our country traditional
artists have been very unfortunate due to the caste in which they were born in.
Markets or the Bazaars’ target is only restricted to bring middle class to high
class but the ones who are following these folk forms are not even considered
as humans.
Sanjay
Pawar who is a playwright and cultural-social activist said, “Everything nowadays is a caste based profession, folk
artists who were deprived of education and rights had to learn some skills to
earn livelihood.” While Arjun Dev
Charan, who is a professor at Rajasthan University mentioned many folk form
such as: Ravanonki Rammat, Pabujiki Phad, Kanwad all from Rajasthan and many
such art forms that earlier existed in distinct parts of our country but are
now slowly vanishing.
The topic for the second day of
the seminar were ‘Invisible through the
lens’ & ‘Caste question’ for which documentary filmmakers such as Rahul
Roy and Amar Kanwar were invited. The whole session revolved around the margins in
documentary film making. Several aspects relating to the role of marginal in
filmmaking were stretched out. Both the speakers being documentary film makers
spoke about what margins do exist in documentary film making. In the second
session of the day Prof.Tripurari
Sharma, NSD, talks about the journey of the Baiden women who are considered
to be a part of the lower caste of the society.
These women are performers by birth and caste and not by choice. Inequality sets the stage for the dealing.
These terms are not set by the women themselves but the hierarchy that defies
their status.She talks about how these women used to go and perform between
these men who belong to the upper caste in a circle of intimacy. Now when these women
have stepped on the nautanki stage, it provided them with security and respect.
The dance became free and the women distanced themselves from the audience to
dance with abandonment and joy and now the attention has seemed to shift from
the dancer to the dance.
The seminar came to an end with
the last session on ‘Defying and
defining minority’ & ‘Peasant uprising then and now’. The session
consisted of personal experiences of all the speakers. They came and talked
about the projects that they have been associated with. The highlights of the
session were issues that revolve around LGBT communities that have been
neglected as a bigger subject in theatre. Why there are so less productions (in
theatre) done on these subjects. The other topic of concern was about those
naxalite groups from whom our society have feared for decades.
Usha
Ganguly,
who is a respectable actor, writer, director and social activist said, “Theatre
in big cities, small cities and towns have been unsuccessful in showcasing the
seriousness in the minds of these commoners-turned-naxalites.”
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