The Shakespeare of Dalit
The Shakespeare of Dalit
Having written 35 plays, he is known
as Shakespeare. However, the only similarity is the same number of plays what
Shakespeare has in account. He has written special things about common mass
whereas Shakespeare wrote common things about special people. Mahendra Malangia
is one of the milestones of modern theatre of Mithila, a cultural region
depicting the sensibilities of people from Bihar and South
Nepal. A farmer and teacher from a small multi-caste village,
Malangia is devoted for theatre as to advocate the oppressed and disadvantaged
wings of society.
Like other parts of India, Mithila
is also a highly cast-ridden society where ruthless differences can be seen in
every walk of life; not only among people and customs but also in language as
Maithili being the mother-tongue is categorised according to particular caste.
If talking about arts, the region has witnessed the evolution of Mithila
(Madhubani) painting and the development or degradation of various arts &
crafts forms such as Sujni, Siki, Khatwa, Manjusha, folk music & dance,
Vidyapati Sangeet etc. Mithila too had
the rich classical theatre in Sanskrit & Maithili before 15th
century which was later replaced by the lively folk theatre practiced by
untouchables.
The early modern Maithili theatre practitioners
initiated a theatre for upper casts mostly influenced by the classical theatre
where the subjects discuss the life of either gods, positioned at the top of
the god’s hierarchy or the people belong to the upper levels of the society.
Side-by- side, the lower casts carried on with folk theatre, their own gods
(Dalit gods), people and language. Ironically, there was no way of mingling the
two streams of theatre as the intellectuals (almost all belong to the upper
casts) always believed in either the former group or in ‘no theatre for
civilised society’.
Here came few daring and pioneering men,
who took the oath to change the discourse by creating dialogues between the two
opposite sections of society, Malangia was one of them. Now it is possible for
one to observe the 5, 000 to 10, 000 couple of eyes watching some painted
moving characters in a remote village of Bihar when the dark night stares at a
lighted stage and enjoys ‘the saga of untold and the voices of unheard’. Malangia
has crafted this magic in which the sons of oppressors portray the sons of
oppressed with the genuine feelings and in their alleged crude or uncivilised
language.
This new form of theatre is a
tribute to ever-neglected, downtrodden wing of society; well- written and
well-performed by groups consisting members from diverse castes, religions and
nationalities. The effective combination of realistic themes & styles with
indigenous taste illustrate the untouched subjects such as the life of
underprivileged, human relationship, contemporary picture of rural and
semi-urban life, outstanding story design & dialogue and a theatre of all
three generation in terms of aesthetics, thought and presentation style. The
standard of creation & entertainment at the least resources develop low
cost theatre, a demand of time and situation.
Abhishek Kumar
E-mail:
abhiyatri@yahoo.com
if you want to share your story or article for our Blog please email us at educratsweb@gmail.com or Click here
0 Comments