The Ninasam Diary:

The Mecca of Indian theatre

By Dr. Ajay Joshi

[Part 1]

The Ninasam theatre

Tucked away in the Mallad region of the State of Karnataka is the small village of Heggodu. Surrounded with arecnut trees and a rich landscape, it is dotted with tiny houses and mud roads. And amidst this nestles Ninasam (Neelkantheshwar Natya Sangha), a cultural movement, which has affected the lives of the many fortunate in the surrounding communities.

It was here that, during the years of the partition of India, way back in 1947, a group of visionaries, felt the need to engage the youth, who otherwise whiled away their time. And they decided to use the arts to rope in their interests. Literature, poetry, theatre, community activities and films introduced over the years, and what started as an experiment has grown into a full- fledged theatre activity in these remote parts.

Such was the impact created that it affected nearly 200 villages and its inhabitants in its immediate surroundings, inculcating in them a penchant for the arts, that its founder K.V. Subanna got the Magsaysay award for this activity , considered on par with the Nobel prize.

Today any ordinary person would speak at length of Akira Kurosawas’s films, claim to have watched many versions of King Lear, critically opine on film-maker Satyajit Ray’s lighting design for his films or casually engage in an animated discussion on theatre.

Mecca

Considered as the Mecca of Indian theatre, it is in its numerous spaces that the theatre community longs to perform at least once. And the who’s who of the theatre and artistic world have all been here.

In the initial years the people would meet in the evenings to gossip, to discuss contemporary issues and events, and to occasionally put up a theatric production.

These random activities crystallised into strong interests, leading to the formation of an amateur cultural troupe that the founders named Nilkantheswara Natyaseva Sangha (Ninasam) after a local deity. Over the years it was blessed by eminent personalities in the field of theatre, literature, arts, culture and education. It expanded its scope to encompass the community, while it itself grew in infrastructure and its theatric reach.

Having traversed a tumultuous journey, today it houses the Ninasam Theatre teaching institute (where the audience have been witness to productions from Samsa to Shakespeare, Tagore to Chekhov, from Kalidasa to Bretch). Established in 1980, it offers the 15 to 20 selected students, a 10-month course in theatre arts, styled in the NSD (National School of Drama) model. The emphasis is working in non-urban conditions, where the students are given a teaching scholarship covering food and stay expenses, with an intensive residential training. The next highlight is the Ninasam Tirugata (A Mobile theatre run by the past students of the institute,

having reached an audience of more than 20 lakh people in the mofussal parts of the state). Established in 1985, a group of 20 artistes, shortlisted from the graduating batch, handle both the onstage and offstage work and are paid equally. In their repertoire are three to four plays rehearsed from July to September and then the tour shows of the same are held from October to March each year.

An art work

They play one show every 50 to 100 kms of travel with a performance practically each day, totalling about 120 shows in 140 days, which is in itself a teaching experience not only as performing artistes but in community living.

Apart from these there is there is the Ninasam Film Society, Ninasam Janaspandana (which took the best of world cinema and theatre to the doorsteps of the mofussil and rural communities of many parts of Karnataka), Ninasam Prathisthana (a foundation set up with the purse Subanna received as part of the Magsaysay award, which holds short-term courses in literature, drama and theatre, and allied arts for college students and members of cultural groups).

Along with this it also has been instrumental in running projects like the annual theatre festival in May, Summer theatre workshops, Children’s workshop and the Culture course in October. Ninasam also has a publishing house, Akshara Prakashan, which has been instrumental in publishing some of the best in regional and world literature into Kannada, for the benefit of the locals. Partly dependent on the State Government for funding for stipends for its students and payments to the repertory actors, it relies on donations and goodwill for sustenance.

Proscenium theatre

Ninasam has its own proscenium theatre built of local material and also houses other alternate performing spaces, which have been tastefully created, again using indigenous material. Apart from this there are housing facilities for the students and guests, a well equipped library, an office space and a mess, all designed simply but artistically.

Wood carvings, sculptors and wall paintings are all over. It encourages network and makes available the few rooms that comprise their guest quarters, if one were to do research, use their exhaustive library or then write a book. It was amazing to see the commitment with which the people go about the work assigned to them, which spells volumes of the strong bond that has been built over the years.

During any of the programs when the place is milling with guests, the local villagers voluntarily come forth to help in the dining hall, serving the guests, as if it their own family function.

Among the numerous activities it conducts throughout the year, one such popular, is the culture course. Cultural activists, students, teachers, academicians, professionals, theatre practitioners assemble here and are put through a routine which involves academic discussions on a pre-announced theme by experts in the field, debates, platform performances, evening performances followed by post-production discussions etc, that makes this activity popular and testimony of its success over the past 23 years.

Production

I was invited this year to be a part of the post production discussions. In this series I will focus on the four productions that I witnessed. Two of these were performed by the Tirugata, the mobile theatre wing of Ninasam, one by the enthusiastic artistes of the community and the fourth an invited play from Mumbai-‘Sita Swayamwara’,’Gandhi Viruddha Gandhi’, ‘Jugari Pass’, ‘Stories in a Song’. Each of these was distinct from the other in form, content, direction, acting styles and the general layout of the final presentation.

And without a doubt, I came away largely impressed with the attempt on stage and the over-packed auditorium.

The writer is a practising Dentist, with a PhD on Theatre Criticism, and Master’s in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has freelanced with major Indian and International newspaper, magazines and journals on theatre and culture. He has been involved in theatre festivals as media person, organiser, coordinator and judge. A translator of many Marathi plays into English, he has numerous papers on theatre in national and international seminars, to his credit. A visiting lecturer on theatre and journalism at Symbiosis University, University of Pune and Flame School of Performing Arts, he currently writes on theatre for Saakal times, E-Rang and Critical Stages.com, a journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics.