To his credit, Ghosh chose different song forms for different genres – mythological plays would include Kirtan, for example. For example, in plays like Chaitanyalila or Nimai Sanyas, which dwell on the life and spiritual awakening of Chaitanya Dev, references to Vaishnavik Leela Kirtan became a subject on its own. The nature of the content of these plays re-introduced songs into Ghosh’s theatre. Many of Ghosh’s plays were based on the lives of historical characters, such as Chaitanya Dev, or were mythological stories. Ghosh soon became an institution unto himself – writing, directing and acting in plays, with people thronging the theatre to watch him. This was the context in which the first Bengali theatre star, Girish Chandra Ghosh, emerged. Jatras continued to thrive, modestly, dwelling mostly on social themes concerning Hindu-Muslim relations, as well as historical and mythological stories.ĭuring the second half of the 19th century, religious revivalism rose in tandem with European liberalism. The European-inspired proscenium theatre emerged in Calcutta, although rural cultures moved closer to the folk theatre-based Jatra, which even today is mostly staged in the open air with the audience seated on all sides. With the Bengal Renaissance of the 19th century, a sharp divide between the rural and urban cultures arose. In the same year, Dinabanadhu Mitra’s Nildarpan (The Mirror of Indigo Planting) showed the brutal exploitation of peasants working on indigo plantations by their British employers. In 1860 he wrote Ekei ki bale Sabhyata (Is this Civilisation?) and Buro Shaliker Ghare Ro (The Old Fool’s Fads), both of which became famous. Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt, for instance, experimented with European dramaturgy and started writing farces. Sanskrit theatre, which largely relied upon the mythical elements of Hinduism, was soon too dated to portray the social realities of the times.
The tradition of songs in Bengali theatre continued, though the nature and content of them evolved over time.Īs the East India Company committed atrocities in India – from the Battle of Plassey in 1757 to the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857 – paving the way for the British Crown to assume direct control of India, ‘enlightenment’ came to the Bengali elite through European culture and education.
These songs were introduced to the theatre of the time to reflect their devotional narratives. An important aspect of Gaudiya Vaisnavism – a religious movement initiated by Chaitanya Dev that gained dominance at that time – was the devotional worship of Radha and Krishna via songs called Leela Kirtan. From the 16th century, with the modernist trend in Bengal ushered in by Sri Chaitanya Dev, Sanskrit plays were performed after being translated into Bengali. However, it would be a bit myopic to credit the first theatre production in this part of India to Lebedeff’s ground-breaking act alone. Many historians consider this the first instance of a Bengali play on a proscenium stage in Bengal – theatre in which the audience sits in front of the stage and actors face a single direction, rather than moving around the stage performing for a 360 degree audience.
On 27 November 1795, the curtains were raised at the Calcutta’s Bengally Theatre for a Bengali version of Richard Jodrell’s comedy, The Disguise, produced by a Russian named Gerasim Lebedeff, and with an ‘all-native’ cast.