Sunday, September 02, 2007

Habib Tanvir and Chhattisgarhia Theater

Habib Tanwir was born in Sept 1923, he matriculated from Raipur in 1942, and graduated from Nagpur in 1945. He moved to Bombay and then to Delhi to work in theater. He married Monika Misra who was an actress/director.

In his early thirtees, he went to London and studied in Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for 3 years.After this, he went for a short Europe tour and sang Chhattisgarhi songs at bars to cover travel expenses.

When he was back in India, he felt the need to unlearn what he learnt in London and it took him nearly 14 years, 1958 to 1972, in this. In this 1958 to 1972 period, most of his plays with his set of rural actors trained in Chhattisgarhia Nachaa were more or less failures. He identified two factors for these failures: avoidance of mother tongue and lack of freedom of movement.

He addressed these. Then came

  • his first significant Chhattisgarhia play 'Gaon ka Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damaad' in 1972, 
  • next  'Charandas Chor' in 1973-4 which won the Edinburge Fringe First Prize later, 
  • 'Mitti Ki Gaadi' a chhattisgarhia adaptation of Sudrak's classic in 1977 , 
  • 'Bahadur Kalarin' an oral rural tale, 
  • 'Shajapur Ki Shantibai' based on Brecht’s Good Person of Schetzuan in 1978, and 
  • 'Lala Shohratrai' based on Molière’s Bourgeois Gentleman in 1981.


(source:
1)http://india.indymedia.org/en/2003/09/7941.shtml author Sudhanva Deshpande
2)http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2315/stories/20060811001208800.htm author Shayoni Mitra
3) http://sundaytimes.lk/070527/TV/tv_4.html
4) http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mag/2005/01/02/stories/2005010200570500.htm
5) http://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/midsummer-nights-dream-tanvir-habib-1993/
6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieQtsrRuOSc&list=PLC2ECB01055A8C1D1
)

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