| 8 | | Also significant was the mediation of amateur theatre in Shantiniketan and Jorasanko: [[Rabindranath Tagore]]’s musical theatre (Tasher Desh, Balmiki Pratibha) and dance dramas (Chandalika, Chitrangada), e.g. by [[Modhu Bose]]’s Calcutta Amateur Players. Early 20th C. stage industry counted many very successful companies usually owned by rich financiers and run by manager-impresarios. They had a determinating impact on the early Bengali film industry (see [[Hiralal Sen]] and [[Madan Theatres]]). Conventionally, modern 20th C. Bengali theatre dates back to Star Theatres’ 1923 production of Karnarjun (starring [[ |
| | 8 | Also significant was the mediation of amateur theatre in Shantiniketan and Jorasanko: [[Rabindranath Tagore]]’s musical theatre (Tasher Desh, Balmiki Pratibha) and dance dramas (Chandalika, Chitrangada), e.g. by [[Modhu Bose]]’s Calcutta Amateur Players. Early 20th C. stage industry counted many very successful companies usually owned by rich financiers and run by manager-impresarios. They had a determinating impact on the early Bengali film industry (see [[Hiralal Sen]] and [[Madan Theatres]]). Conventionally, modern 20th C. Bengali theatre dates back to Star Theatres’ 1923 production of Karnarjun (starring [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahindra_Choudhury|Ahindra Choudhury]], [[Naresh Mitra]] and [[Durgadas Bannerjee]]). [[Sisir Bhaduri]]’s plays at Natyamandir later provided a generic backdrop to radical ‘group’ theatre movements launched in early 40s (see [[Utpal Dutt]]). The era of the great public theatres was later often evoked in films as pre-war nostalgia or as the nascent origin of Bengal’s mass-culture industry (e.g. the [[New Theatres]]’ [[Abhinetri]]/ [[Haar Jeet]], 1940 and [[Meri Bahen]], 1944). Established several key genres, including the historical and mythological, for the cinema as much as for the popular Jatra theatre. |