‘Drama’ or ‘Theatre’ is considered as the perfect platform to showcase one’s acting skills. Because theater is all about your one shot performance, unlike films there are no retakes, whatever and how you perform is the basis of your talent. It is quite a challenging job because this can bring you fame or may sometimes ruin your career. Many a times the current actors/actresses do mention that they do enjoy doing theater rather than movies.
In our country also we do see many actors doing theater but not all of them do it, as this is not everyone’s cup of tea. And there are still a no. of theater artists who prefer only doing drama rather than movies even though they have been offered fantastic roles from Top Production Houses in India. Once I asked a very famous theater artist and director that “Why they don’t release DVDs of their drama for better exposure?” His reply kept me spellbound. He replied that:
Drama is all about improving yourself after your each and every performance. The 1st show of a particular drama and its 400th makes a huge lot of difference on the performance of the artists. I feel ashamed by my performance in the 1st show after I see my performance in the 400th show. This is the reason we don’t capture our performances.
In India, the dramas are usually based on our ancient literature work or on folk theme. Bhavai is a popular form of folk theatre in Gujarat. It is a performance where a story is told through an act with some music. The word “bhavai” means expression. According to another source, it is believed that “Bhavai” is a combination of two words ‘Bhava’ which means Universe and ‘Aai’ which means Maa, i.e mother of universe, Goddess Amba. It is part of the rich culture of the western part of India. Although it is not that famous amongst the citizens but for the ones who have seen it once, they can never forget it in their lifetime.
Bhavai is a basically a troupe drama. The chief of the troupe known as ‘Nayak’ who commences the drama by worshiping the Goddess Amba. After that an actor who resembles Lord Ganesha enters the stage followed by Goddess Kali , Brahmana and Vesha. Each and every time a new character enters the stage the Nayak announces and gives a brief introduction using a particular instrument named as “Bhungal”- a four feet long copper pipe. The drama is enriched with a subtle social criticism along with a pungent humour. The main humour is of ‘Ranglo’ and ‘Ranglee’ which attracts the audience. The drama reflects on social stigmas i.e. injustice, criticism, caste differences or just about any topic that calls for a concern.
The Nayak always remain on stage and direct the course of action with their commentary. The story unfolds through songs, dialogues and speeches in prose as well as verse. Interestingly, female characters are also are acted by men in Bhavai. A variety of traditional musical instruments like harmonium, dholak, jhanjhar, sarangi and pakhwaj are used in Bhavai. The language of Bhavai is a blend of Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu, and Marwari.
Sanedo or snehdo(Gujarati: સ્નેહડો), derived from the word sneh (Gujarati: સ્નેહ), meaning love or affection has a striking resemblance to Bhavai. Sanedo contains couplets of four lines with topics that can be anything from Romance, Youth or Satire. Sung at Navratri festivals and weddings, it’s origin is from Patan in Gujarat. The dance theme is also adopted in all Gujarat cities and is gaining popularity as it reaches far and wide in Britain and US.
In all, Bhavai drama was developed by the local tribes of Gujarat and Rajasthan for the devotion of God and as well as giving the society a social message to reform the ill practices that are going on in the region.
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