Modern Hindi Plays

Author(s): N. C. Zamindar
Source: Books Abroad , Winter, 1966, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Winter, 1966), pp. 38-39
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/40120296

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38 BOOKS ABROAD

Narayan
expertly in The Glass Menagerie? Mishra,
- but it Shreeniwas
was Das, Kishori lal
a stage play actually writtenGoswami,
in 1953 and others
and ap- wrote plays in the style
parently resurrected from of Bhartendu,
a pile taking themes from religious,
of unused
manuscripts in the attic, andhistorical, and social
no evidence subjects, and experiment-
ap-
ing to
peared that it had been adapted with farce. Bhartendu's achievement was
a different
medium. Act I: The drawing room;
great, Act II: his tradition was not
but unfortunately
The gentleman's flat; Act carried forward.
III: Back toThere
thecame about a bifurca-
drawing room. The camera was tion of the drama
almost movement, with the drama-
never
out-of-doors. When he revived this
tists work into
divided the two groups. One wrote
author should have reread itplays
most carefully;
merely as a literary form having little
both he and the New Zealand scene were
relation with the stage, and the other wrote
twelve years older, more sophisticated, and the for the stage. The first group of literary
purely
daughter Winsome on this count wasdramatists
just wrote plays which make good
reading
too bad to be true. She was not just simple, she but are mostly useless for the stage.
appeared slightly mentally deficient. The The
play outstanding figure of this group was
was far too long; judicious cuts reducingJayashankar
the Prasad. His historical plays, writ-
playing time to less than an hour wouldten have
in high-flown style, have only literary ap-
eliminated many of the dull spots, especially
peal. He forgot the vital fact that "the drama-
tist requires a theater." Prasad set a wrong
those in Act I. From a writing and production
tradition for Hindi playwrights by totally
viewpoint, television plays of thirty or forty
minutes are more likely to succeed. ignoring the theater. It can also be argued
that the nonexistence of theater compelled
Stage plays are an obvious source of tele-
vision material, but full-length plays ofPrasad
real to write literary drama. Prasad's Ajat
merit are a rarity in New Zealand, many Shatru
of S\anda gupta and Chandragupta
them being merely inflated one-act plays suited
hope- his grand style.
lessly unable to hold the interest of an audience
Laxminarayan Misra wrote some plays un-
over the longer time. Bruce Mason has demon-der the influence of Ibsen. Sindoor Ki Holt
strated what can be done; it could be the andgene-
his other plays were staged but were not
sis of a flourishing era of television writing.
successful. Practically all important Hindi
Auckland Teachers' Collegeprose writers and some poets tried their hands
at the drama, and all were failures. Govind
Modern Hindi Plays Vallabh Pant's Varmala and other plays were
By N. C. Zamindar unsucessfully enacted. Bechan Sharma Ugra
It can hardly be disputed that all the Indian some realistic plays, but they also did
wrote
not come on the stage successfully.
languages - except Urdu - derive inspiration
for their plays from Bhart Muni's Natya Harikrishna Premi and Dr. Govind Das
are major Hindi playwrights. The latter has
Shastra. The Sanskrit plays were written with
a full knowledge of stagecraft. After the written
Mus- more than fifty plays. Harikrishna
lim invasion in North India, dramatic art Premi's
suf- plays were successfully staged in La-
fered an eclipse. There is no evidence thathore,
the and the plays of Govind Das were staged
Muslim rulers patronized the dramaticinart. Jabalpur, but it cannot be said that the plays
Drama survived in the form of folk art. are popular. Because of the lack of a theater
Perhaps the only Muslim prince interestedand a good dramatic troupe, all these plays re-
in dramatic art was the Nawab of Oudh Wajidmain on the shelf of the library.
Uday Shankar Bhatt and J. C. Mathur
Ali Shah (1821-87). He not only wrote a play
Inder Sabha but formed a troupe and even among the older playwrights have written
acted in it. It must be regarded as the some
firstgood plays. J. C. Mathur 's Konar\ and
Shardiya have been successfully enacted.
attempt to revive the stage in North India.
The father of modern Hindi, Bhartendu Among the younger playwrights Upendra-
nath Ashk, Ramesh Mehta, Laxminarayan
Harishchandra (1850-85), is also the father
of the modern Hindi stage and plays. Lal,
Heand Mohan Rakesh have written stage-
formed a troupe which enacted his plays.worthy plays. Ramesh Mehta has the luck to
Bhartendu and his contemporaries were bein-
backed by a theater in Delhi; his plays
therefore have become popular. Dr. Lai's and
fluenced by the Bengali stage plays. Bengali
Mohan Rakesh's plays have also been success-
in its turn was influenced by English litera-
ture. fully staged. Rakesh's Asadh Ka El Din is a
Bhartendu wrote seven original plays and
really fine play. Based on the life of Kalidas, it
translated seven. His contemporaries, develops
Pratap into a poignant tragedy.

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 DANISH LITERARY HISTORY 39

Verse-plays and fantasies have to provide

been students of Danish language and
written,
but they remain in the libraries. literature Recently in German-speaking
radio countries with
has made use of them, but the real a satisfactorily
test of these objective modern aid. The
works lies on the stage, which isvoluminous absent.work - 541 large and handsome-
In the social and cultural functions of the ly printed pages with tastefully and expertly
universities, colleges, and other institutions, chosen illustrations on special plates - has
one-act plays are in great demand. Dr. Ram- taken a number of years to complete, and re-
kumar Verma and Upendranath Ashk have dounds to the credit of those responsible, es-
produced stage-worthy one-act plays, and the pecially the authors and the Literature Com-
late Mr. Bhubaneshwar experimented with mittee appointed by Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur
this form, which has great scope. So far, we Verbreitung der Kenntnis danischer Kultur
have dealt with the plays from the stage point im Ausland. It will undoubtedly find a grate-
of view, not from the literary angle, and with ful public. The price will hardly discourage
the literary playwrights. buyers; it is not higher only because of sub-
The second strand of Hindi drama is not sidy from the official Danish side.
generally recognized by some of the standard The authors, Hanne Marie and Werner
historians of Hindi literature.
Svendsen, belong to the brood of writers
The Parsi theater was first formed in 1870.
within Danish literary history research who
The Victoria theatrical company, New Alfred are now in their early thirties; they have, so
theatrical company, Corinthian Company, to speak, grown up in reaction to the tradi-
Alexandra Company, Price theatrical com- tion of Vilhelm Andersen. It should be under-
pany, and other companies and troupes were lined, however, that this is on the whole a
extremely popular. Aga Hashra Kashmiri,traditional history of literature they have writ-
Pandit Narayan Prasad Betab, Pandit Rad- ten. For example, it pays tribute in essential
heshyam, Munshi Abbas Ali, and others wrote respects to Vilhelm Andersen's ground-break-
successful plays for the stage, using religious, ing works - and suffers heroically from the
social, and historical themes. The showmanship lack of penetrating monographical research
and the sense of the dramatic in these compa- on the main works and authorships. The ele-
nies were excellent. One important fact needsments forming the structure of the book are
special mention. The Natya Kala Pravartak the prominent literary personalities and the
Mandali, a Marathi dramatic troupe founded changing generations' common intellectual
by Bhate buwa, used to enact plays written character. And the main emphasis, as the fore-
by Munshi Abbas Ali, who was employed as word informs the reader, is placed upon the
a regular playwright of the company. His classical periods (!). Professor F. J. Billeskov
Ex-hi Paisa, Punjab Mail, etc., were very good Jansen's much discussed and not particularly
plays. How one wishes that the Hindi writers successful historical genre principle - in his
had joined these companies and created a Danmar\s Digte\unst - is not taken over by
vigorous tradition. Recently some attempts the authors; however, they have in great
have been made - in Delhi by the Three Artsmeasure profited from the many good single
club, in Indore by Natya Bharati, also in Ja- observations in this same work. It can hardly
balpur, in Allahabad and other places - tobe otherwise: an account of this size, written
create a theater for Hindi. These troupes are for the benefit of foreign students for whom
amateurs and therefore cannot be compared the possibility of establishing a primary rela-
with professional troupes. tionship to Danish literature is already great-
Hindi badly needs a theater and professional ly limited because of the language, must neces-
troupes; then alone drama will develop. Liter- sarily build upon the research available. It is
ary plays have little importance for the stage. especially upon the ability to utilize this re-
To repeat a commonplace, "The dramatist re- search and to create a harmonious account
quires a theater" because that is the real test from the data available that the authors must
for success of plays. be judged; and when the result is as good as
Indore City the one here, one feels no desire to complain
about the fact that their work does not posi-
Danish Literary History in German tively distinguish itself by originality of view-
By Aage j0rgensen point and the evaluation of works. It must be
Geschichte der danischen Literatur by Hanne sufficient to establish the fact that Geschichte
Marie and Werner Svendsen (Wachholtz. der danischen Literatur is conscientiously and
Neumunster/Gyldenal. Kobenhavn. 1964. 541 clearly written, although as far as the most re-
pages. 30.25 kr.) had its origin in the desire cent period is concerned, somewhat uncertain-

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