![]() This trend, coupled with a growing interest both in English literature, particularly Shakespeare, and the study of the Sanskrit literature, created a new interest in legitimate theatre, as distinct from the popular variety. In 1891 Pammal Sambanda Mudaliyar founded an amateur dramatic club, the Suguna Vilasa Sabha, in Chennai and in time several others appeared in the district towns, such as Sudarsana Sabha of Thanjuvar and the Rasika Ranjani Sabha of Tiruchi. But the new interest in legitimate theatre was confined to the city-based elite. It was the growing number of itinerant companies offering popular theatricals, which reached a wider and more varied audience. T.R. Govindaswamy Rao had set the model by running his Mohana Nataka Company, as a theatrical 'family' whose members lived and travelled together and were able to influence one another considerably under these intimate conditions. Out of this and similar companies emerged a number of artistes who eventually formed their own companies in which the process was repeated. By 1920 the number of these itinerant drama companies was considerable. ![]() Nationalism was not the only element of this tumultuous period in Indian history which began to affect the concerns of popular theatre. Old beliefs and old patterns of behaviour were weakening in the face of western education, the import of new ideas and the establishment of the press and new forms of political organization. Out of this ferment came a realization that social reforms were a necessary element in the progress towards nationhood. Until 1919, the popular theatre was content with putting on mythological plays. Stage artistes were regarded as veritable outcastes and they kept themselves away from the mainstream of society. It was the wave of anger that swept through the country following the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre in 1919 that triggered the process of politicisation in the popular theatre. The political activity stirred up by the country-wide opposition to the Rowlatt Act of 1919 and by the Non-cooperation Movement sustained this trend and inaugurated a new phase in the world of mass entertainment. (Last Updated on : 17-09-2012) |
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