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Death anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore(1861-1941)

The Legacy lives on

Rabindranath: The poet as actor and director

Sabira Manir
TAGORE'S childhood in Jorashako (a locality of Kolkata) was culturally very rich. The environment was enlivened with the performances of renowned maestros and talented jatra artistes. Even in his early years, Tagore developed a taste for jatragaan and was inclined to act in plays.
Rabindranath began writing plays at a relatively young age and also managed to enact those written by children of his family. Except for one or two performances in his early years, most of the time he used to play the role of the complex characters or of the protagonist of his own plays. Simultaneously, he would take on the mantle of play director.
Tagore's early dramas featured only the artistes from his family. He also did excellent work grooming theatre activists.
Mukto Kuntola, was among the first plays that Tagore launched in his boyhood. Mukto Kuntola had the touch of foreign stage play and not that of jatra. Even though Tagore's thoughts about theatre somewhat changed later, there was a distinct influence of the West in his productions starting from Balmiki Pratibha (1881) to Kal Mrigoya(1882),Raja o Rani (1889) and Bishoijan (1890). As the Shakespearean
style was followed in Tagore's plays, the stage decoration and the planning of scenes were also inspired by the western style.
Later, Tagore thought of dropping
redundancy from acting. It is this philosophy that was reflected in his works like Sarodotsav (1908) through the Nrityanattya's(Dance Drama)that were staged at the end of his life. This
can be termed as the 'Shantiniketan Phase' in the history of Rabindra Nattya. At this phase, the plays produced by Tagore had simple but indicative symbols in stage decoration. The play
Raja in 1910 was also performed in the same style.
There were several pragmatic reasons for promoting a new trend in theatre as exemplified in the 'Shantinikatan Phase'. Because of financial constraints, it was not possible to have expensive stage sets.
It is worth mentioning here that as there was no opportunity for female students at that time to pursue their study in Shantiniketan, male artistes used to play the female roles in plays like Raja or Prayoshchitto.
The stage setting of FalguniD^lQ) or Dakghar (1917), staged in Kolkata, were a bit heavy but it helped deliver the theme of the play symbolically.
Although Raja o Rani (1889)and BishotjanD^Q} were staged following the western style of theatre, later the adaptation of these two plays- Tapoti (1929) —revealed Tagore's new ideology of theatre. Symbolic features, dropping still background, continuous acting, creating characters like Vivek— all these elements clearly bear an indication of the very new theatre ideology.
Rabindranath always believed that it was jatra and not theatre which was a strong weapon for mass communication.
Since 1921, in his seasonal Geetinattya (musical drama) and Nrityanattya (dance drama)-
Rabindranath began to give priority to our very own jatra style. This very style was pursued in staging Shesh Barshan, Srabon Gatha, Bashanto, Shundor and Nataraj.
Rabindranath was always fascinated by dance and has always admitted the invaluable role of this performing art in acting. Since KalMrigoya (1882), Tagore included little girls of his family even for auxiliary characters like 'Bon Devi'. Rabindranath himself was adept in dancing. He featured efficiently as a dancer as Thakurda in Raja, Kabishekhar and Andho Baul in Falguni and Baul in Dakghar.
A harmonious bridge between music and dance was observed in Geetinattya like Bashanto(1323), Shesh BarshanD^S}, Shundor (1925) Nataraj (1927) and GitotsavD^M). Later on the subject of plays was gradually presented in the form ofdance.
Rabindranath's role was of the director-producer in the 'Nrityanattya phase'. The plays were rehearsed before him. He would often sit on the right side of the stage and at times took part in the music, reading and recitation.
Though less known as an actor and director in stage plays, Tagore's legacy lives on in the form of simple stage sets and the inclusion ofdance in theatre.
Source: Rabindra Smriti, Kaier Matra 0 Rabindra Natok and Nattyomancho Nattyaroop.