In drama, the response to the Bengal famine of 1943 brought
about a major shift of focus. Prior to this, the Bengal stage,
so rich in individual talent had been dominated by historical
and nationalist themes. The horror of the famine fired the
theatrical with a new sense of social consciousness and inspired
them to work outside the traditional framework. The play,
which encapsulated and heralded this new awareness, was ‘Nabanna’
(The Harvest), which used simple stage props and employed
dialogue couched in the vernacular of the common person. The
acting style was similarly direct and unmannered. These experiments
marked the beginning of a new age of Bengali drama. In the
late 1940s and 1950s amateur drama groups were formed, without
government support or the backing of big financiers, which
carried forward the experiment begun in Nabanna. Some of the
most illustrious names of the Indian theatre world –
Sombhu and Tripti Mitra, Utpal Dutt, Bijan Bhattacharya, Ajitesh
Banerjee-were all participants in the movement. It created
for Calcutta’s middle-class theatregoer's a world of
drama cutting across cultures and ranging from Greek and Sanskrit
classics to Tagore and Chekhov, to contemporary European palywrights
such as Brecht, Pirandello and Wesker.
Prose literature and poetry were marked by a heightened sensitivity
to reality. Lyricism, which had been the hallmark of much
of Tagore’s poetry, was sought to be replaced by a choice
of realistic and earthy themes, and a mood that often tended
to be cynical, and sometimes harshly critical, of the existing
state of things. But the most noteworthy cultural achievement,
which brought Calcutta to the forefront of the international
scene, occurred in the world of cinema in the work of one
man- Satyajit
Ray. |
