Drama-Queens

A documentary film on three pioneering women of Indian theatre.

DURATION – 52 Mnts. FORMAT – Digital

Concept, Script, Direction – Sohini Dasgupta

Production – Films Division of India

SYNOPSIS

This will be a documentary on three veteran theatre activists of India, the

changes they brought, the styles they crafted and the battle they adorned as
theatre workers. They are women. They are pioneers. They belong to different
times and places. Mapping them will reveal their contribution in shaping up
modern theatre of India, now an internationally acclaimed art form from India.
Theatre in India has remained dominantly a male-foray but the revolutionary
women of Indian stage are yet to acquire the well deserved spotlight.

The “Drama Queens” in focus are B. Jayashree from Bangaluru, Sabitri

Heisnam from Manipur and Moloyoshri Hashmi from Delhi.

TREATMENT

The proposed documentary film will focus on THREE important women theatre
activists and directors of India through a chronological and geographical
mapping. Geographical mapping is significant as it shows how a place, its
socio-political scenario can shape a content and form. These pioneering ladies
of Indian theatre have been consistently working on forms, techniques,
content and presentations of dramatics. Being women, they have naturally
faced challenges that are social and familial as well yet they have chosen
theatre to cling on to. They have chosen theatre as their tool, their canvas,
their religion. The film intends to exploit the whole of it and create a cultural
document.
Space plays a very important role in the treatment of this film. It will be a
performance oriented film, stylistically it can be referred to as a “performance
drama”. The premises of the film will be the stage, respective outdoor
locations, the back stage as well as the green rooms, rehearsal studios etc. The
film will attempt to explore the creative process that finally gives birth to a
theatre production.

We would come across each artist through their thoughts, their passion, and
their individual style of working, their inspiration and aspiration - the stories
of their personal journeys. There would not be any “voice-over” in the film.

The film will be a collage of three very different bodies of work by three very
different women theatre activists of our country with an experimental visual
narrative. The film will dig out significance of a traditional art form gaining
edges and becoming a therapeutic process, a tool to protest, a path of
reformation in today’s time, where the leaders are; women.