Marathi Theatre

"The 4-wheeler class is killing theatre," exclaims Mohan

Kulkarni in despair! Kulkarni, of the theatre promotion company Manoranjan, is convinced that this class is "abandoning theatre to go to multiplexes."

Kulkarni says, "Only the hardcore audience comes. New audience is not getting created. The youth is not interested at all in serious drama. This is because they don't have too much knowledge about Marathi literature."

Manoranjan does its bit for experimental theatre by offering concessions, but Kulkarni isn't too sure about the future of serious Marathi theatre. He says comedies, or what he calls the "tapori" shows, are what bring in the crowds - the raunchier, the better. This is especially true of the younger, college-bound, mostly male audience.

Prasad Vanarase emphatically disagrees with Kulkarni. Marathi theatre, he says, is a thriving, vibrant entity. And young people today are more interested than ever. With his involvement in FLAME (Foundation for Liberal and Management Education) and as director of ACE (Academy for Creative Education), which he started, Vanarase has been involved in the promotion of experimental and amateur theatre in the city and interior Maharashtra for years. He is trying to create awareness about grants for theatre that are available from the Ministry of Culture, and the major concession the Railways offer to traveling troupes.

Vanarase, a National School of Drama graduate, credits the Maharashtra government for having taken a major initiative in 1955 to organize state-level competitions. This, he says, "actually converted many people, who would have remained theatre goers, into theatre makers." Vanarase feels this initiative kick started a huge industry. In state-level competitions there are about 450 groups performing in 22 different centers. This involves thousands of people in acting, directing, marketing, backstage work.

Another entity, the Maharashtra Cultural Center (MCC) has been involved with theatre, both children's and mainstream, for the last 15 years. They have their own theatre, the Sudarshan Rangamancha, where they subsidize plays.

MCC President Dr. Mohan Agashe has imported from Germany a branch of theatre called GRIPS. GRIPS portrays the world through the eyes of children, but is performed by professional adult actors. It does not offer solutions — the intent is to make children think. This has been extremely popular with school children, MCC's Shubhangi Damle says.

About the "sleaze" factor in theatre, Vanarase says that it is like a wave, demand goes up and down. But he is convinced that serious theatre is not going anywhere. "How do you define success?" he asks rhetorically. "If you base it on the response of the theatre goers, we are very successful."

Like Vanarase, Damle doesn't believe either that cinema is affecting theatre, "Because theatre lovers love theatre and come to the theatre despite films."

Published in The Times of India, Pune Edition