By  Meghachandra Kongbam

Ratan Thiyam

Well-known theatre director-actor M.K.Raina once remarked, “ Ratan’s plays are strongly rooted in a local context. The classical Manipuri dance and tribal martial arts, accompanied by local costumes, have shown us that if we tap into our local traditions in the right way, the world will listen to us.”

Ratan Thiyam himself strongly believed that aping western traditions in Indian theatre would not be called Indian theatre. Only regional performing arts traditions which were very rich in India could enliven Indian Theatre.

That is why he had intensified in inviting local performing arts Gurus from all nook and corner of the country to teach the local traditions to the students of National School of Drama, New Delhi while he was the Director of the premier theatre institution of India in 1987-88.

He is a great dreamer of aesthetics as well as a great communicator who is able to visualize the meaningful aesthetics to the varied audience with a great impact.

Ratan Thiyam once stated that he had always endeavoured to create all the pieces of local performing arts in a classic or refined form when it had been fabricated to his plays.

When we dead awakenNo one can stop his amazing visual aesthetics in the plays. His latest production-WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN which was premiered on December 17 at Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi here during the Delhi Ibsen Festival from December 10-20, 2008 has again proved his more perfection in the field. He created the production of Henrik Ibsen’s play as if an Indian production emerging from the Manipuri soil. It was another masterpiece which could give an impact to the Norwegian audience and Indian audience as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Author
Ramachandra Guha
Source: The Telegraph, Kolkatta, India

If the masthead of this newspaper were long enough, or if the type it used were smaller, this column could have carried the title: ‘MEETING A MAESTRO ON A MISTY MORNING IN MANIPUR’.

Over the past decade, the little and beautiful state of Manipur has replaced the larger and even more beautiful state of Nagaland as the second most troubled part of India (the Kashmir valley, of course, being the first). Other insurgencies in modern India have been, for the most part, a straight contest — between the insurgents and the Indian State. True, the rebels have had their factions, but these are all united by the dream, or fantasy, of taking their territory out of India to construct a new, sovereign, nation. In Manipur, on the other hand, there are three distinct insurgencies in simultaneous operation.

The first insurgency is led and staffed by the Meiteis of the Imphal Valley. This seeks to make the whole of Manipur, as it now stands, into an independent nation-state. The second insurgency is promoted by Thangkul Nagas who wish to merge their districts into a Greater Nagaland, or Nagalim, this to likewise exist outside the framework of the Indian Constitution. The third insurgency is the handiwork of the Kukis, another group of hill tribes who are less than satisfied with what they see as domination by the Meiteis. The Kuki radicals hold out not for complete independence but rather for a new state of their own within the Union of India.
Read the rest of this entry »