A proposed research
Hello
This is my first posing on the research project on the relationship between the production /consumption of the thumri and allied forms through gramophone records and the fashioning of the stage songs (Natya Pada) in the Marathi Sangeet Natak, with special reference to the celebrated impersonator actor Balgandharva.
Introduction The Sangeet Natak is one of the genres of the commercial theatre in Maharashtra which began in the mid nineteenth century. The two important elements in this theatre were : it was a new professional artistic venture for the men of the upper castes and received a strong support from the elite and reformist leaders as well as common viewers as a “respectable” and “decent” form of entertainment as against the popular entertainment forms such as Tamasha, Dashavatar and such other theatrical forms. Secondly, this theatre from the beginning was mainly a theatre of female impersonation (though very soon after its beginning women started acting in this theatre through various Natak Mandalis, All Women Natak Mandalis as well as ‘mixed (mishra)’ Natak Mandalis). As this theatre grew in the nineteenth century it produced various forms such as the Pauranic (mythological Akhyan plays), Farces, Bookish Plays (mainly scholarly/ translated plays). Music had been a central element in the Pauranic plays, while the Farce and the Bookish Plays were without music.
At the end of the Nineteenth century, a new form emerged, in popular opinion with the play Sangeet Sahkuntal by Annasaheb Kirloskar, which established the Sangeet Natak that I refer to. From this time onwards (1885) a more or less strict demarcation between Sangeet and ‘Prose’ (word as used in theatre of the time) was established and two separate sets of Natak Mandalis performed each of the genres.
Balgandharva (Narayan Shripad Rajhans) joined the most famous Kirloskar Sangeet Natak Mandali in 1908 as its heroine. By this time Kirloskar Mandali had acquired the supreme status by virtue of its excellent productions and singer actors. Bhaurao Kolhatkar, the first singer-female impersonator of this company had won tremendous acclaim for his beauty, acting and singing. By the time he died prematurely, he had graduated from the female roles to the lead male roles. When he joined the company, Balgandharva had already acquired this name (meaning celestial child singer) from Tilak, in appreciation of his superb singing. Later on Balgandharva was to become one of the ‘Star’ heroine first of the Kirloskar Mandali and from 1913 onwards of his own Gandharva Sangeet Natak Mandali. He continued to enact female roles till the end of his career in 1950s.
Barring the last few years and a few plays and some theatrical practices especially in the later part of his career Balgandharva was accepted as the most successful female impersonator of his times. This appreciation was based on many aspects of his art. All other female impersonators were appreciated for one or two of their qualities or for some specific roles. However the understanding and appreciation of Balgandharva as the most complete and overall successful female impersonator took into account the visual, auditory and histrionic aspects, and I suggest that this understanding was heavily underlined with the idea of a ‘respectable woman’. In other words, Balgandharva?s ‘darshan’ his singing and the roles he played together created an ideal (essential) woman in theatre, seductive and desirable and yet dignified and respectable; not only the most suitable for the consumption of the women of the respectable households (as well as the dignified men) but also an ideal of imitation in their real lives; as the ‘trend setter’ for women’s attire as well as for the abstract qualities of good womanhood in the domestic and public life: so much so that his fans did not accept a real woman in his place while he was active in theatre. Further, this appreciation of Balgandharva continued in the recent times in the nostalgic writings on Marathi theatre and music as well as in the practice of the Sangeet Natak even after the end of the practice of female impersonation.
What I am looking at: Quite obviously there are many complexities in this practice: both in terms of how it was created on stage and how it was consumed. One of them is the kind of music that became the Marathi Natya Sangeet (theatre music). To cut a long story short here I will only say that the Natya Sangeet came to be constructed by incorporating various musical practices available to the composers at the various points in this long period. For example the popular form lavni was incorporated in the theatre music especially in the early years of the Sangeet Naak. Similarly there is a long history of the association between ‘classical’ music and theatre music. This connection is often represented in terms of the contribution of theatre music to the popularization of Hindusthani ‘classical’ music in Maharashtra.
My emphasis is on the incorporation of the thumri and allied forms which became available in Maharashtra through gramophone records of the Baijis (Gauhar Jan for example). I argue that the aesthetics of this genre and (perhaps of the format in which it was mainly available at least in the first few years) shaped the most successful representation of the woman achieved in Balgandharva’s singing.
The most notable thing here is the status of the ‘original’ which Balgandharva exploited in the representation of the ideal woman. The ‘original’ was a form recogniised as Kaccha gana, though appreciated for its musical intricacies it was none the less practiced (at least publicly) by ‘professional women singers’ or Baijis. How did this genre become purified in Balgandharva?s singing so as to receive the fame of being the true creation/imitation of an ideal womanhood?
There are two questions that I am mainly looking at right now: does the practice of female impersonation ‘imitate’ an existing practice of gender or does it ‘create’ one?
Two: this is to do with understanding the relation between voice and gender on the one hand and musical genre and gender (and voice) on the other. This also implies the production of voice and genre on the gramophone record disc. What notion of a complete representation of genre is operative in a three minute record disc?
I am listening again and again to male singers like Ustad Faiyaz Khan and Pandit Ramkrishnabua Vaze and then to Joharabai and Gauhar Jan, in search of the idea of a complete performance and the elements they choose to highlight to establish this as well as their musical genre, its status and their own individuality. I will be back with some more ideas in the next posting. Meanwhile I look forward to your responses.
best urmila
