Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association

Timestamp:

Jun 23, 2012, 11:18:07 AM (12 years ago)

Author:

Trupti

Comment:

--

Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association

@@ +1 @@
+'''Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association'''
+
+
+Theatre movement informally affiliated to the
+CPI; launched as an All-India front in Bombay
+(1943) with a manifesto calling for a ‘ defence
+of culture against Imperialism and Fascism’.
+While its immediate antecedents were in the
+PWA (1936) and thus in the European anti-
+Fascist movements of the 30s, the front found
+its identity with Sombhu Mitra’s staging of
+Bijon Bhattacharya’s play Nabanna (1943)
+and with Jyotindra Moitra’s song series
+Nabajibaner Gaan (1944). Both works were
+based on the Bengal famine of 1943.
+Subsequent work included travelling musical
+and theatre groups, predominantly in context
+of 40s CPI-led struggles in Bengal, Andhra
+(Telangana) and Kerala. Through the 40s and
+early 50s, it grew into the only instance of a
+cultural avant-garde in contemporary Indian
+history. It was active also in Punjab, Assam (see
+Jyotiprasad Agarwala and Bhupen
+Hazarika), Orissa (see K. Pattanayak) and AP
+(the Praja Natya Mandali, which also made one
+film, Raja Rao’s Puttillu, 1953), despite a nearprogrammatic
+emphasis on reclaiming the
+popular vernacular by using local folk and
+occasionally popular modes of performance.
+The strategy’s major strength lay in enabling
+several regional movements to forge new links
+and to reinvent their own local traditions, e.g.
+in Kerala, where the Kerala Peoples’ Arts Club
+(KPAC) played a key role in the CP’s
+organisation of the peasantry in Malabar and
+North Travancore leading to the insurrection
+against the erstwhile Travancore State (1946-
+50). Radical theatre movements around e.g.
+Thoppil Bhasi’s plays also traced an ancestry
+via the Young Namboodiri movements of the
+30s (with V.T. Bhattathirippad) to the
+Yogakshema Sabha (Est: 1908) and to the major
+early 20th C. poet Kumaran Asan. The less
+activist but equally influential aspect of the
+front was in the major urban centres with e.g.
+the work of playwright-film-maker K.A. Abbas
+and dancer Uday Shankar. For a brief period
+following WW2 and in the early years of
+Independence, virtually the entire cultural
+intelligentsia was associated with or influenced
+by IPTA/PWA initiatives, possibly because it
+was seen as the ‘ only cultural organisation
+engaged in serious creative activity’ (Sudhi
+Pradhan, 1979). The IPTA’s impact on cinema
+includes the collective effort of Dharti Ke Lal
+(1946) mobilising actors Balraj Sahni and
+Sombhu Mitra, musician Ravi Shankar and
+writer-scenarist Krishan Chander; Neecha
+Nagar (1946: cf. Chetan Anand); the plays of
+Inder Raj Anand staged by Prithviraj
+Kapoor which led to Raj Kapoor’s film team
+with e.g. scenarist Abbas and music directors
+Shankar-Jaikishen. The IPTA also supported
+some independently made films: e.g.
+Shantaram’s Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani
+(1946). In Bengal, its influence on film was
+mediated through Manoj Bhattacharya’s
+Tathapi and Nemai Ghosh’s Chinnamul
+(both 1950), which represent Ghatak’s and
+Bijon Bhattacharya’s first encounters with film.
+Other Bengali films connected with the IPTA
+include Bimal Roy’s Udayer Pathey/
+Hamrahi (1944); Satyen Bose’s Bhor Hoye
+Elo (1953) and Rickshawalla (1955) and Sushil
+Majumdar’s Dukhir Iman (1954). In Kerala,
+the key event for the IPTA style’s transition to
+film was Neelakuyil (1954) by Ramu Kariat
+and P. Bhaskaran though the KPAC tradition
+itself was best exemplified by Thoppil Bhasi’s
+films and scripts.
+