SOME ROOTS GROW UPWARDS: THE THEATRE OF RATAN THIYAM
Directed by Kavita Joshi and Malati Rao
2003, English and Manipuri with subtitles
51 mins, colour
Produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust

A timely film on the theatre of Ratan Thiyam explores the feeling of oppression and injustice that pervades the psyche of the Manipuri people

This film on the theatre of Ratan Thiyam is timely, not simply because Manipur and the growing violence against Manipuris has been in the news, but also because Thiyam’s unique experiments with theatre and his startling productions need to be more widely seen and acknowledged.

Kavita Joshi and Malati Rao take the viewer into the Chorus Repertory Theatre and we watch as Thiyam develops his production of Ritusamharam, which explores the relationship between humans and nature through the work of the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa. Thiyam trained at the National School of Drama in Delhi and then returned to his native Manipur to work with and strengthen traditional theatre modes and techniques.

Thiyam’s Ritusamharam is a lyrical examination of the human predicament and differs somewhat from his earlier works where he takes on violence more explicitly. The spectacular but poignant Chakravyuha deals with the murder of Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s teenage son, in the fratricidal war of the Mahabharata. Uttarpriyadarshi takes on the emperor Ashoka and the battle of Kalinga after which the emperor renounces violence. But Ritusamharamis an introspective and quieter work, reflecting on alienation and isolation, rather than on the obvious effects of violence. Kalidasa’s poetic world of the seasons and the emotions they evoke, the ethereal beauty and magnificent control of the performers and Thiyam’s resplendent use of colour, is punctuated by the dissonant appearance on stage of a man in a suit with dark glasses and a cigarette, dragging a suitcase.

Thiyam’s theatre has always been political, in the widest sense of the word. The feeling of oppression and injustice that pervades the psyche of the Manipuri people is the wellspring of all his work. His theatre is produced from a time and a space of conflict, but his vision and his art are able to transmute that into performances of terrible beauty, of self-conscious metaphor and universal depth and application.

In a recent interview recorded for the Ranga Shankara theatre festival in Bangalore (where this film was also screened), Thiyam talks about the lack of development in his region and the effect it has had on youth. He says, “I try to do my job . . . working at evoking awareness. It needs to be done subtly, though, I do not think loud, talkative, dramatic statements can do much. We have to work at the subconscious level.”

The filmmakers, in this case, cut between the bucolic landscapes of the Manipuri countryside, the idyllic interior of the Chorus Repertory Theatre’s commune, scenes from rehearsals and earlier performances, and file footage of soldiers, riots and curfew. There are scenes of empty markets and queues for pensions that never come. The viewer gets a strong sense of Manipur being the state that the centre has forgotten. The technique of inter-cutting between the reality of the streets and the representational world of the theatre works well, making the necessary point about Manipur as well as the political content of the productions without over-statement or excessive emphasis. In this, the film appears to imitate Thiyam’s method of communication: subtlety and suggestion, rather than outright declamation.

Lokendra Arambam’s Soldiers in Sarongs takes the issue of Manipuri insurgency head on and details the history of the resistance. Such a film provides a political context for the work of Thiyam. But, like Amar Kanwar’s recent A Night of Prophecy, Joshi and Rao use a deceptively lyrical style based in song and poetry to point a finger at State atrocities and the effects of decades of marginalisation.

The importance of Ratan Thiyam’s theatrical work lies in the fact that he puts traditional forms to urgent and contemporary use. The political importance of his work lies in his ability to speak of the unspeakable in a universal language. This films needs to be seen as much for the significance of Thiyam and the Chorus Repertory Theatre as for us to realise what is happening to people in the north-eastern parts of the country.

For more information, contact:
Kavita Joshi, 2 nd floor, 65B/4
Gautam Nagar
New Delhi 110 049
Phone: 011 2651 8315
Email: impulse@bol.net.in

InfoChange India News and Features, December 2004