‘Nukkad Natak’, ‘Shehri Natak’ or ‘Street Play’, is one of the best mediums to connect with the common people. Folk artists in India have been performing for ages. However, the tradition of street theatre with its revolutionary ideology started after the national movement when the message of nationalism and patriotism started spreading.
Days passed by and the themes of street plays also changed, from national awareness to AIDS awareness, labor movement, capitalism, sexual harassment and many other social issues.
Artists convey direct, deep and brief social messages to the masses with the help of drama. Their energy, dialogues, high-pitched voices, songs, humour and the sound of their claps help attract viewers and grab their attention.
The earliest form of theatre was Sanskrit theatre. Bharata’s Natya Shastra was one of the earliest plays enacted in India. According to Alishah Syedain and Dr. Mohammad Faisal, in their research paper ‘A Chronological Study of Origin and Evolution of Street Theatre in India’, “The evolution of street theatre can be traced with the movement of left-wing ideology and conceptualization of people’s theatre through IPTA. The members of IPTA, like Badal Sircar, Utpal Dutt, Habib Tanvir, Shombhu Mitra & Bijon Roy have contributed significantly to the origin of Nukkad Natak.”
“The street theatre of Safdar Hashmi, the third theatre of Badal Sircar, the revolutionary Jatra theatre of Utpal Dutt, and the Chhattisgarhi folk theatre of Habib Tanvir are all major alternative forms of ‘Committed Theatre’. Utpal Dutt and Habib Tanvir used street theatre as political catalysts during the 1940s and 1950s. It was revived in the 1970s and now the movement has spread all over the country. Habib Tanvir, who has worked with the IPTA, emerged as a central figure whose “Theatre on Wheels'' traveled on trucks in villages performing on them,” wrote Shrimati Das and Asha N. Rabb in their research paper titled 'Street Theatre - the Third Theatre: Agents for Social Engineering in India'.
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Street play is considered to be the rawest form of acting because artists do not have the advantage of microphones or loudspeakers. Earlier, street plays were not just used as a tool of political awareness. In the 80s, it was a means of battling social injustice too.
In the 1980s, the infamous Mathura rape case induced a lot of shows on the need to make rape laws.
“Om Swaha”, another street play from the 80s, dealt with the ills of the dowry system. There were a few productions that gave a synopsis of a woman's existence in India.
By the mid-90s, nukkad natak were performed by a few NGOs for spreading awareness in towns or villages about issues like HIV, social equality, inequality and injustice against women, environmental cognizance, and so on and so forth.
Isha Banerjee, a volunteer from NGO ‘Being Social-Ek Nai Shuruat’ said, "We use nukkad natak to spread awareness in slums and rural areas. With the help of street plays, we reach out to people to make them aware and responsible about social issues and taboos.”
“We have done street plays in the slum areas of Ghaziabad and Noida on menstruation hygiene awareness, monsoon hygiene, general hygiene, environmental care, and women safety. For children, we have also done 'good-touch and bad-touch' awareness street play in these areas," she added.
During a nukkad natak, a crowd does not come to attend the performance. It is pulled in by the performing artists and what is often called a 'common call'. A 'common call' is used to attract people and spectators on streets, in markets, slum areas, and busy public areas.
As passersby stop, or halt, artists start performing to retain their audience. Less time and busy lives decide the boundaries of the plays. The performances are short, immediate and personal and, to be more successful, typically boisterous and unapologetic, with a touch of humour, jingles, dancing, and a social message.
Safdar Hashmi is best known for his work in the Indian street theatre circuit. He was a communist playwright and director. His brother Sohail Hashmi told CitySpidey that after the emergency was announced by the central government from 1975-1977, constraints were released against communists. To top that, with the progressive Naxalbari uprising in Bengal, street theatre entered another stage. Artists were assaulted regularly by the police. Safdar Hashmi's Jana Natya Manch (or Janam), performed in 1973, led to the development of Indian street theatre or nukkad natak.
Hashmi characterised road theatre as a theatre of protest whose function is to agitate, mobilise and to strengthen the common man. In 1989, a defining moment for street theatre was when Hashmi was assassinated during a performance. In the late-fall evening, Janam was playing out their play 'HallaBol' (Raise Your Voice) for a gathering of laborers at Jhandapur, Sahibabad, on the edges of Delhi when Hashmi was killed.
In the modern times, street plays have found a place in the hearts of college students as almost all colleges have street theatre societies. Street theatre still continues to raise voices against social ills and make people aware of the same. It is an art form that holds the power to bring a change.
