Habib Tanvir's theater had folk elements. This anyone who knows his theater would know. You can't escape this fact about his theater. The main actors of his theater were drawn from Chattisgarh. They were 'Nacha' performers. Nacha being a folk drama form of the region. Most of the actors spoke in chattisgarhi dialect of Hindi on stage. A lot of the comic element of his drama was taken from the nacha tradition. Some of the plays that Habib Tanvir did were also not his own creations but were taken from the Nacha tradition again. Okay, let me get back to the Nacha tradition a little. From what I know of it, in Nacha, the actors improvised…they had puns, punch lines, they mocked certain classes etc. They also mocked traditions and created some serious theater on very relevant subjects- overturned social relationships - look at ' Jamadarin' or 'Ponga Pandit'- one of the more controversial plays of Habib Tanvir. ( He had to face a lot of resistance from groups and individuals who considered this play to be anti Hindu) But this post is not about the nature of democracy in India. It is about the tribal actors/dancers in Habib Tanvir's Naya Theater. When the prominent elements of his theater came from rural Chattisgarh, his musical references also were folk and tribal. Habib Tanvir had travelled quite a bit in Chattisgarh and Bastar listening to folk and tribal music.
Now coming to the tribal actors and dancers in his theater that I got a chance to interact with. These were from Dantewada in Bastar region. Laxmi Sadu's troupe. The most memorable thing about them was that they used to bring 'mahua' with them in plastic bottles. They would carry their plastic glasses. They would offer it to people they became fond of. Shalini was owned by them very quickly and thus I got an entry into their inner circle and I was also offered Mahua at the end of a day.
The thing about them , the special thing was that they were almost always smiling and laughing. They would drink alcohol and then laugh even more and also sing and dance. The whole group did almost everything together. So much so that when in crowd scenes Habib Saab would try to make three of them move away from the rest of the group everyone would go where the others were moved. Habib saab tried to explain it to them a few times then just accepted this as a fact and decided to design his scenes in such a way so that they all moved together.
While traveling in buses they had special songs where they would sing about everyone in the bus and have something usually funny to say about different individuals in the group through the song. Well, am sure their society and their lives have certain issues but they always seemed happy , contented and alive.
Now coming to the tribal actors and dancers in his theater that I got a chance to interact with. These were from Dantewada in Bastar region. Laxmi Sadu's troupe. The most memorable thing about them was that they used to bring 'mahua' with them in plastic bottles. They would carry their plastic glasses. They would offer it to people they became fond of. Shalini was owned by them very quickly and thus I got an entry into their inner circle and I was also offered Mahua at the end of a day.
The thing about them , the special thing was that they were almost always smiling and laughing. They would drink alcohol and then laugh even more and also sing and dance. The whole group did almost everything together. So much so that when in crowd scenes Habib Saab would try to make three of them move away from the rest of the group everyone would go where the others were moved. Habib saab tried to explain it to them a few times then just accepted this as a fact and decided to design his scenes in such a way so that they all moved together.
While traveling in buses they had special songs where they would sing about everyone in the bus and have something usually funny to say about different individuals in the group through the song. Well, am sure their society and their lives have certain issues but they always seemed happy , contented and alive.
