Natya Shastra

Paper: 2 Relationship Of Dance And Theatre, Study Of Rupaka And Uparupaka, Traditional Theatres Of India Module 33 Inter-Relationship Between Dance And Theatre -1 (From Natyashastra To Bollywood ) Cinema is often hailed as the 20th century medium for artistic expression. The film industry in India began with the silent film “Raja Harish Chandra” in 1913. It had an all-male cast, with even the female roles being played by men, and subtitles in English and Hindi. As its cast and crew were mostly Marathi it is also regarded as the first Marathi film. Its success greatly encouraged the fledgling industry, and many films were produced after this but it was only in 1931, that “Alam Ara/आऱम आरा” was made, the first talkie. There are believed to be several influences on Indian cinema, of which one major influence was the epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The side story, back story, and story within a story are all techniques one finds in the telling of the epics which perfectly suit global cinema and which Indian cinema has also extensively adopted. Some of the most powerful renderings of the epics can be found in folk theatres of India that use song, dance, music, and humour to get its message across. The influence of Parsi theatre, with the elements of song, dance, flamboyant dialogue and humour, even of the crude variety, blended in a mix of fantasy and realism to create a narrative and a spectacle, largely dependent on the twist of deus ex machine, was the direct 1 ancestor of Indian films. Interestingly, most of the film producers and many of the actors in the early period, definitely till the 1950s, came from the background of drama, dance and music theatre companies of that time. The Indian Hindi film industry was based in Mumbai and has been informally christened Bollywood, a take on the internationally known Hollywood. Bollywood has grown to be a huge cinema industry, even when there are numerous thriving regional cinema in India as well. But probably nothing was as important an influence on the Indian film industry as the influence of classical theatre best described in the Natya Shastra. Classical plays, at that time were mostly in Sanskrit, and hence classical theatre is sometimes treated as being co-terminus with Sanskrit theatre. The word natya is derived from the root word nrit/नतृ (dance), which was an essential part of their content. This generous use of song and dance, characterized them as spectacular dance-dramas, features that have continued in Indian cinema. The Natyashastra describes ten types of plays of which one is the uparupaka. Bollywood films come closest in matching the uparupaka. Few realize that from the outset, India’s popular cinema has followed the stylised conventions of the Natyashastra, with its stress on spectacle, created by blending music, dance, comic gestures, romances, undiluted villainy, emotive sacrifices, all used to evoke numerous “Rasa” in the audience. The Natyashastra is often described as the 5thVeda. It is supposed to be the Veda that can be accessed by all, just like in modern 2 times the Cinema is an art form that is the most accessible to the largest number of people. The Natyashastra has older resonances and contains the essence of all four Vedas in it. It consists of four elements. The first among them is ‘pathya/पा腍य’ or text, including the art of recitation and rendition in performance. This is taken from the Rig Veda. The second element is that of music, including songs and instrumental music. This element is taken from the Sama Veda. Abhinaya or acting, the technique of expressing the poetic meaning of the text and communicating it to the spectator has been got from the Yajur Veda. Lastly rasa or aesthetic experience has come from the Atharva Veda. It is, at the outset, the ‘anukarana/अनुकर्’ण or the `redoing` of the triple universe and life in its entirety, but ultimately it is the anukirtana/अनुकीतनण of bhava i.e. `re-telling` of emotive states in order to create a new world of `imagination` that both the classical form of Natya and Indian cinema, both do. As Natya is derived from Nrit, or the Sanskrit verb ‘to dance’, it is not surprising that Indian films have such an overload of dance and song. In the Natyashastra, dance is classified as either margi or desi. That which is sacred for the gods and danced for them is Margi. It shows the way or ‘Marg’ as it were, to higher goals and ends. In contrast, the dance, for the pleasure of humans is called ‘Desi’. Of course, this tradition continues in Bollywood films. The seductive item songs, and the fast-paced and high octane, energy- driven dances that we see increasingly today would appear to fall in this category. What makes a typical Bollywood film is the ‘masala’ element in it. Interestingly, the Natyashastra appears to be inspired by the kitchen when it talks of rasa, and the Bollywood 3 film is also inspired by the kitchen when it talks of ‘masala’. Masala films have been described as a film having one star, six songs and three dances! Therefore, the fundamental formula of a Bollywood film includes song and dance. And it has been a winning formula since it has been able to keep the takeover of Hollywood cinema as has happened in many countries around the world and that it has been a self-sustaining industry that has a finger on the pulse of the people and is constantly reinventing itself to keep the footfalls coming. Natyashastra further describes performance as Natyadharmi and Lokadharmi. Natyadharmi means stylized or theater-oriented and Lokadharmi means life-oriented. Natyadharmi pertains to the conventions of the stage. According to the Natyashastra, Natyadharmi is a theatrical representation larger than life and considerably conventionalized. It is stylized and the artist’s imagination has a free hand in this mode, contrasted with Lokadharmi. This further establishes the point that Indian films not being realistic, but fantastical are using the principles of the Natyashastra. In the second chapter of the Natyashastra, the norms for the prekshagriha or auditorium are described. Bharata’s ideal model was an intimate theatre, considering the subtle emotions of the eyes and other facial expressions which were important for the actor to express the appropriate bhava and its nuanced construct. The lens of the camera changed the need for all this because it came so close to the pupil of the eye that it could detect a flicker that even the small theatre would miss. This closeness appeared to border on voyeurism, but drew the audience in to the experience through a stylization that made 4 them savor the emotion. When it came to the actor, even the actor was a patra/पात्र, a bearer of the bhava, and not the bhava itself. That happens in the case of the Western Stanislavski method, where the actor must become a character who is a living, breathing, embodiment of an emotion, rather than simply conveying emotion. With its kaleidoscopic approach, the Natyashastra’s influence can be ascertained in the growth and development of Indian classical music, dance, drama and art. Hence it is certainly not an overstatement to say that Natyashastra indeed laid the cornerstone of the fine arts in India. Although in Hollywood, films were like Broadway musicals in the 40s-60s, and even today we get an occasional song and dance film like “Moulin Rouge, “Chicago” and “The Producers”, but in Bollywood and any of the regional-woods, the tendency to subscribe to the song and dance formula continues energetically almost a hundred percent. In fact, sometimes it goes over the top. Some of the most memorable films made in India are those created around dance themes -- “Chandralekha/चंद्रऱेखा” in which the dance sequence with drums spread over acres of land, cost as much as the rest of the film, “Navrang/नवरंग”, “Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje/झनक झनक पायऱ बाजे”, that had Gopi Krishna do the choreography and also dance in it. Gopi Krishna’s famed Shiv Tandav swept connoisseurs and ordinary viewers off their feet. “Naache Mayuri/नाचे मयूरी” (1986) retold the inspiring story of dancer Sudha Chandran, who in real life lost her leg to amputation following an accident, yet danced on a Jaipur foot. The film won her a National Award and gave us a film on dance that was “real”. 5 One film stands out, deserving a special mention – Kalpana/क쥍पना (1948) was, doubtless, a dance film, not because Uday Shankar directed it nor because it featured Amala Shankar and Padmini of the Travancore Sisters, but because it used cinema as a medium for dance. It was not as if the film used a large number of dance and song sequences, but in fact the entire film was ‘danced’. Shot at Gemini Studios over 90 days on an initial budget of Rs. 11 lakhs and finishing at Rs. 22 lakh, it was a satire, firmly grounded in reality but unfolding sensitively, an artist’s struggle. It broke virgin territory. Publicized as ‘a unique and unparalleled event since the movies began,’ the restored Kalpana screened at Cannes 2012 probably remains that. Most Bollywood films subscribe to the idea that the cornerstone of a film is the Rasaraj/रसराज, Shringar/�रंगार, as they are about romance in the face of great impediments. While the narrative is adequate to suggest the growth of emotions, love songs help in setting the mood, goading the feelings, nuancing the emotions.

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