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”.
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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. All this is conveyed in a wide variety of established symbols and metaphors coming down from the ages in the mindspace of Indians - the meeting of two flowers, the billing and cooing of birds, the honey bee and the lotus, and of course a lot of dancing around trees. This was quite enough to suggest activities that the censors might not approve of.
However, serious love songs provide scope for poetry and song to flower, but they do not provide as much scope for dance as the playful love songs. Such playful love songs are not just marked by elaborate solos, pas de deux, but also ensemble choreographies,
6 and include scenes shot at exotic foreign locations, with frequent change of locales, angles and costumes. This rapid shift of visuals, doesn’t really allow any bhava to take root in the garden of the mind and so no real rasa is created. As such it does not serve the narrative. That holds true of item songs or cabaret songs. So there is really no need to waste expensive raw material, resources, shooting time and costs to can such a song sequence. Yet we see that not only are they continuing, but they are flourishing. It is used as the talisman for success, and of driving the footfalls. Dance sequences in films often become the selling point or USP of a film.
In this context rose the concept of the item song, a large and significant enough subject that deserves a separate study, but for the moment it would suffice to say that this dance item is powerful enough by itself to often carry the film through the box office. The point however to be noted is that if shorn of this song and dance element, the narrative of the film could continue, unhindered. The choice of styles of dances used was also driven by its attractiveness and its persuasive powers to drive in the audiences. This could be noticed even in the music, for film songs were drawing form as diverse influences as classical music, folk music, songs of particular communities like the boatmen who sang in several languages in India and in a range of tunes and styles, and even western music -- both classical (‘Itna na mujh se tu pyar jata’ ) to rock and roll (‘Eena meena deeka’) and cabaret numbers (‘Husn ke lakhon rang’, etc.) Increasingly, just as its music, even while being rooted in Indianness is deconstructed to give it an international appeal, so do today the profile of dance in
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Indian films is taking on a global look, not just in its form but in its cinematic treatment as well.
In the films made till after two decades after independence, the films drew largely from classical and folk dances. Since neither "classical dance" nor "folk dance” are homogenous entities, one witnesses considerable dance variations. Films from the south used BharatNatyam and Kuchipudi while those from the North and the East tended to use Kathak, most closely associated with the mujras/मुजरा of the tawaifs/तवायफ़. At that time some of the names for choreography were renowned names from the field of classical dance - B. Sohanlal/बी.सोहनऱाऱ ("Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam",
"Jewel Thief", Chaudhvin ka Chand"), Lachhu Maharaj/ऱ楍छू महाराज ("Mahal", "Pakeezah", "Moghul-e-Azam"), Chiman
Seth/चीमन शेठ ("Mother India"), Krishna Kumar/क्रिष्र् कु मार ("Awaara", "Madosh", "Andaaz"), Gauri Shankar ji/गौरी शंकरजी
(Pakeezah), Gopi Krishna/गोपीकृ ष्र् and Kumudini Lakhia/कु मुदिनी ऱाखखया (“ Umrao Jaan”) and a host of others.
Amongst men the roles played by Kamalahasan in “Vishwaroopam/ववश्व셂पम” is the result of intense work under a great maestro, Pt. Birju Maharaj. Even Rituparno Ghosh’s role in the film “Chitrangada/�चत्रांगिा” had the benefit of training under Odissi danseuse, Sharmila Biswas. This list, by no means complete, successfully points out to how earlier Bollywood films used classical dance for its inspiration and classical dancers as choreographers. There is a close link between classical dancers
8 who became actresses. Sitara Devi, Vyjayantimala Bali, Hema Malini, Waheeda Rahman, Meenakshi Sheshadri, and Madhuri Dixit come to mind. Their work can be noticed right away as they are very comfortable in any dance form. In fact this formula of using song and dance, is a reflection of expressing cultural identity. An example of reverse influence is narrated ahead. In this case, the film treatment helped strengthen the classical dance content.
The renowned Odissi Guru, Kelucharan Mahapatra acknowledged the impact on his work, of his childhood mentor, Guru Mohan Sundar Goswami. Goswami trained him in the requirements of RasaLeela, but he was to leave a longer-lasting impact on Kelucharan Mahapatra’s life and work. A seminal, significant, albeit subtle, influence came from the example of Goswami’s efforts to establish an Oriya identity through his pioneering work in Oriya films. Mohan Sundar Goswami, produced the first complete Oriya feature film in 1936, ‘Sita Bibah/सीता बबबाह’. This film was a distinctly Oriya creation. The film had 14 songs in its two-hour duration and all singers for the movie were from Orissa. Mohan Sundar Goswami who had scripted the film himself, consciously and conscientiously used the traditional music of the land. Thus, this weaving in of lateral creativity to get the right vernacular flavor, was a trait that Kelucharan Mahapatra imbibed well, and drew upon later in his revival of Odissi.
The Folk Dances of India are an enduring influence on Indian films. Imaginary costumes and dances have been part of almost all films. Often they come through as parodies. Take the case of “Naina
9 soyi soyi, naina jage jage” from the film “Yeh Gulistan Hamara/ये
गुलऱसतााँ हमारा”, or “Mera naam Aao” from the same film, that are supposedly Naga dances! However, films like “Mrigya/मगृ या” and “Bhav ni Bhavai/भव नी भवाई ” have been respectful in representation. In the 1995 Bengali film Yugant/युगांत, made by Aparna Sen, the National Film Award for Best Choreography, won by Ileana Citaristi, depicted a Chhau dance that is happening outside the window of the room. A trained Chhau dancer herself, Ileana was able to fill the window in the window of the frame so well, that it was noticed and awarded. In “Meenaxi/मीनाऺी: A Tale of Two Cities”, she used Kathak, Chhau and Kalaripayattu artistes for a Qawwali scene that was part of a wedding celebrations at night. Evidently she succeeded in bringing together the unexpected, but all were at least well-trained traditional artistes!
In many recent films that seem to have discovered the flavor of folk again, the folk chorography has been used either for heightened sensuality as in the case of the songs “Kajarare” from the film “Bunty aur Babli/बंटी और बबऱी” and “Choli ke peechhe” from the film “Khalnayak/खऱनायक”, or for added colour as in the film “Barfi” that used Purulia Chhau in a segment and linked the song “Itni si hasi”. A similar treatment was accorded in the choreography of the song “Kashmir main, tu Kanyakumari” from the film “Chennai Express/चेꅍनई ए啍सप्रेस”, that used a variety of dances in a de-contextualized manner the film. In this song, choreographed by Farah Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone do some basic Kathakali and Bharat Natyam moves.
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The picturisation of the song also shows a brief scene of Puli Kali which is danced at the time of Moharram in North Kerala and the Mayil Attam which is danced in honour of Lord Subrahmanyam in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This is followed by a few seconds of leaping by the lithe Kalaripayattu artistes. Of course to enhance the local flavor and color, the background is showcased with decorated elephants of Kerala's temple festivals. Why even the song “1234, Get on the dance floor”, has movements inspired by Dappan Koothu, and even the costume of Lungi raised half way the open buttoned shirt knotted at the bottom to reveal the chest is similar to what these traditional dancers wear. A bandana on the head neck or wrist completes the ensemble, and it was visible in the film as well!
Dance and music may have become an integral part of films, but with the exception of a few cases, dance, both folk and classical, suffered seriously. Each dance style taken up by the film industry began by being handled by experts in that style as established earlier. All too soon choreographers, who were talented but not devoted to that particular style made innovations, changed it, simplified it, and diluted it, in an effort to make it more attractive or seductive and more easily entertaining to the untutored masses. Thus, each style in turn degenerated until it bore little resemblance to the original from which it sprang. Eventually, the language of many styles was mixed, and to this hybridized mélange were added elements taken from the West.
Regrettably, a reverse perversion is happening as a result of this hybridization. In the original source centers of these folk dances, undoubtedly influenced by the valorization that the hybridized
11 form of the dance is receiving, some degree of pollution is entering the original source area. Author Vikram Kishore laments that as a result of this the dances which are the patrimony of the real world, are being destroyed.
Although there has been no complete breakaway, and these folk and classical influences continue even today, they seem to have become mixed with many more dance styles and have at time become unrecognizable as to their origins. Today, it can be said that Bollywood has developed its own corpus of material that is displayed or danced out, as solos, in duets or with a large ensemble of dancers, dancing together with military precision. In the early days, some of these moves were either easily identifiable as belonging to a particular style, or really rather hard to class as dancing. The spastic jerks and jumping around by Shammi Kapoor, Jeetendra, or Bhagwan, identifiable moves unique to Bollywood began to develop. Today the playful love song has matured into an identifiable set of moves, some of which may be shared by other dance traditions around the world, but others are unique to Bollywood. That is why there is a whole new genre of dancing that goes by the name of Bollywood dancing that has crossed the boundaries of the desi with its ever growing popularity far and wide. Bollywood dance moves are now a familiar sight on Western TV and cinema screens.
Today, Bollywood is drawing crowds with people willing to pay top dollar for it. Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the art diplomacy arm of the Ministry of External Affairs, that usually sends artistes overseas to represent Indian culture, has recently included Bollywood troupes in its categories and lists to send
12 overseas. The District Councils in distant Madrid and Salamanca among other places - are supporting ‘Bollywood Dance Shows,’ to raise funds for a good cause, or simply to celebrate joi de vivre! The Bollywood dance competition scene on US college and university campuses is quite well entrenched. Bollywood dance teams now exist on many (if not most) large and medium sized college campuses.
Bollywood dance is regarded as a vibrant, popular, fun and inclusive genre of dance. Inspired by song-and-dance sequences contained in Hindi films, it is an outgrowth of Bollywood dance’s participatory cultures, The Indian film, therefore, at least the film which caters to a mass audience, retains almost all the ideals which Bharata set down, but there is a crucial difference. Bharata set forth what might be regarded as the high culture of his time; cinema, dogged as it is by the need for commercial success, mirrors the common culture of its day although still purveying "courage, amusement, as well as counsel" to the spectator.
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