[Reader-list] Khetro Broadsheet02 article- Screen, Stage, and the Multiplex

[Arijit Paul]

Dear friends,
I have got of the khetro broadsheet02. This issue focuses on the ongoing debate about the changing shape of cinema and theatre with the intervention of newer  technologies. It also carries articles on Bengali desktop on Linux platform, and the development of interactive identification keys for monitoring biodiversity. I think the articles will be of interest to many of you. So I am posting them for open reading and discussion.
Arijit.  
 
THIRD POSTING:
 Screen, Stage, and the Multiplex
Nilanjan Bhattacharya

 

 

Multiplexes are in and the cinema halls are not yet out though - but are facing a serious threat to their existence. It�s evident that this time the city of Calcutta is not against the turn. Three multiplexes with multiple film-screening options are already in existence and a few more are coming up soon. Cinema as an �art� might be facing the hardest challenge since it�s invention more than 100 years ago. The Challenge of being sold as a �product� along with many other products which do not have any relation with �art� per se. It is a reality that multiplexes have enhanced the choices of viewing, simply by keeping multiple film screening theatres in one arena. And other options for consumers - like fashion garments, fast food, footwear and accessories - have followed. Sometimes this could happen in reverse order. At least in these multiplex units the �film� and the �product� relationship is quite evident. People of the cities in India have now more options to choose from, about what
 they are going to do for the day, simply by standing inside a multiplex. And it seems like that they want to avail of this newfound autonomy.

 

Being the government body responsible for the city�s management, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) - or in its new appellation, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) - with their plans to develop shopping malls, plazas, amusement parks and many other things, had already entered the big booming construction industry in our neo-Kolkata. In tune with this, they have taken up a project, which comes up as a pioneering initiative in the Indian context - turning the Star Theatre into a theatre multiplex. 

 

Star Theatre is a glorious name associated with Bengali culture, as it was a thriving centre for commercial theatre since 1883. It also reminds us of a number of legendary theatre stalwarts like Girish Ghosh, Binodini Dasi, Amarendra Dutta, Ardhendusekhar, Prabha Devi, Sishir Bhaduri and many others down the ages. The Star was first inaugurated on 21st July 1883 at Beadon Street in North Calcutta. It closed down in the year 1887. The theatre came up again on 25th May 1888 at 75/3, Cornwallis Street, Calcutta, under different ownership and it remained open till 14th October 1991, the day it was devastated by a fire. KMC had acquired the site in 2001. The multiplex will be inaugurated on 13th October 2004 on the auspicious day of Mahalaya. 

 

The history of Bengal�s proscenium theatre dates back more than 200 years. Even before the formalization of proscenium commercial theatre in Bengal, the theatre or �play� used to be considered as a �product� for entertaining the viewers. Performances of plays at rich people�s courtyards in earlier days, or later, the use of words like bhalo samogry (good product), notun notun jinish (new things), on the top of the advertisement handbills to mention the production itself, supports this orientation. The idea of making �the product� or the play more interesting to draw more viewers had influenced the directors, playwrights, and the producers of Bengali theatre. The regular practice of putting independent song and group dance items in between plays, or in the beginning, or at the end, were meant to add the variety and to increase the level of entertainment for the viewers. 

 

This trend increased with Amarendra Nath Dutta, who brought realism to the Bengal stage by introducing more realistic sets, backdrops, and live properties for the first time, during his period (1897-1916) of work as a director, actor, playwright, and producer. Amarendra Dutta with his Classic Theatre group brought in basic changes in marketing strategy too. By improving the paper quality, design and printing, of the advertisements on handbills, introducing catchy, colloquial and slightly subversive language in handbills and newspaper advertisement columns, printing programmes on hand fans which were to be distributed among the viewers, Amaraendranath used to goad sustained debates and enthusiasm with each of his plays, in a way similar to the marketing of a �product� nowadays. 

 

Much before Amrendra Dutta came onto the scene, the Great National Theatre (1873-1877) had introduced the concept of the �free gift� for the viewers. This practice continued for some time. Emerald Theatre (1887-1897) distributed earrings and rings among the viewers, the National Theatre used to distribute free gifts by lottery as the show tickets used to carry numbers for the draw. Ranging from umbrellas, or a bag of coal, to even a slice of pumpkin, the gift items were exhibited in front of the footlights! Amarendra Dutta�s Classic Theatre had distributed books, like the complete works of the Bengali poet and playwright Michael Madhusudan Dutta and Sabdakalpodrum, as free gifts. 

 

All these acts and strategies had positive effects temporarily on ticket sales. It is also evident that the strategy of distributing free gifts on a purchased show ticket had reflected the act of tagging two or more �products� together even in those days. We can also see the same trend in performances by foreign theatre companies here in Calcutta. Much later, an advertisement on 23rd Ddecember1936 in The Statesman, carried an announcement of a free gift - a Hillman �MINX� car - to the lucky winner on the last day of the performance of the Hollywood musical, �Swing Time� at the New Empire. 

 

>From today�s point of view a very strange thing took place in the entertainment scene in Calcutta more than 100 years ago. Again, Amarendranath Dutta was the man behind it. He had introduced the screening of the bioscope on the Bengali stage for the first time before the beginning of his play, �Alibaba�, on 4th April 1898 at Classic Theatre. (According to Shankar Bhattacharya�s Bangla Rangalayey Itihasher Upadan, the first time the bioscope was screened on stage in Calcutta was at the Minerva Theatre on 31st January 1898.)

 

Within a year of its invention, the bioscope was screened for the first time in India in a Bombay hotel on 7th July 1896. Screenings of small length �moving pictures� began in Calcutta in the same year. Those were the early days of �cinema� and the cinema hadn�t really found its definition yet. Before the bioscope came people around the world never had the experience of seeing such a �technology miracle� in front of their eyes. No wonder that the advertisements of the Bioscope used to carry such phrases like, �the eighth wonder of the universe�. The surprise value was very high at that time which had attracted people to this newborn �media�. And like a senior, a big brother, Bengali theatre had tried to adopt that child into his own family, to bring it under his roof. 

 

To the theatre directors and producers of the time, the bioscope was a new �product�, which they found could go very well with the theatre performances to increase a production�s commercial draw. A list of productions of the Star Theatre from Shankar Bhattacharya�s Bangla Rangalayey Itihasher Upadan, shows that all the evenings of the theatre performances between 2nd November 1898 to 31st December �98 were accompanied by bioscope screenings at the end of the play. A typical evening�s programme, like, for instance, that on 29th October �98 included a bioscope show at the end of the play Babu. The screen showed the death of Lord Nelson, Queen Victoria�s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the funeral procession of William Gladstone. The screenings were followed by live entertainment - The Rainbow Dance by Miss Nelly Mountcastle. It�s also very significant that within the above mention period, out of 26 days of performances there were 11 different plays performed. This statistic shows the
 conscious efforts by the producers, directors and the playwrights to attract more viewers by offering variety. Almost everything was attempted � mythology, comedy, social tragedy, even patriotism.

 

On the other hand, to an enthusiastic director like Amarendranath, who had always believed in experimenting with different aspects of theatre, the bioscope had come up with a whole lot of possibilities of experimenting within the structure of the play itself. An announcement of the Classic Theatre in 1901 narrates: A series of superfine pictures from our world renowned plays Vramar, Alibaba, Hariraj, Dolo Lila, Budha, Sitaram, Sarala etc. will be produced to extreme astonishment of our patrons and friends.                                                                                                                                                                                              

With the help of Amarendranath, Hiralal Sen�s Royal Bioscope Company picturised some small scenes from the various plays of Amarendranath. Amarendranath had used those scenes in between his plays. Like in the play Bhromor, an outdoor scene showed the hero, Gobindalal (Amarendranath) approaching land from the river. He was on a boat. As soon as the picture ended, viewers could see Gobindalal entering the house on the stage! It was true that Amarendranath had used that technique primarily to thrill his viewers but consciously or unconsciously he had actually improvised and adopted a style, which later on became an accepted mode for many modern theatre directors.

 

In this context it�s quite interesting to observe the early attempts to bring in the sense of multiplicity by offering variations like putting bioscope scenes in the middle of theatre shows, or performing a different play each day. Other attractive elements like, magic shows and dance performances, either before or after the main play, were also thought up to boost the same sense of multiplicity itself. So one may say that an undefined structure for providing variety to the clientele/audience was very much in existence in those days. Though there was no concept of multiple stages or screens then, like today�s multiplexes offer, the provision of multiple choices to the viewers (seven different plays in a week), the implementation of aggressive marketing strategies (free gifts, media hype, catchy advertisements) or the adoption of modern techniques and technologies, were efforts to boost the �trade�. In a way, the early theatre industry of Bengal had created an ambience quite similar
 to the present day multiplex.  

 

Now, when the entertainment industry is at another point of transition, two of our most powerful media art forms are taking a turn towards a new definition of �art entertainment�. Probably, with this strange twirl of the �history� or the �market�, the infrastructures of both the theatre and the cinema industries are going to look almost the same. It seems that they both are destined to be sold, catered and distributed as �products� along with so many similar or different kinds of products available in the market. But at the same time we cannot deny the fact that cinema and theatre stand apart from other �products� simply by their power to mesmerize people. Both could also provide the viewers food for thought, which may make them feel empowered. These are the qualities, which still hold the position of these art-entertainment forms quite high in society.

 

The closing down of more than 15 cinema halls within the main city of Calcutta, in a span of five years, and the obliteration of Bengali commercial theatre, have signalled a kind of transition. Apparently it seems that the youth of Calcutta have embraced their newfound conviction in �multiplexism�. Already 3 multiplexes with multiple cinema screening facilities have come up in the city, and another four (which all together will have 24 screening theatres) will come into existence soon. The Star multiplex will have one theatre stage, one seminar hall and one open stage � all centrally air-conditioned. The Mayor�s commitment goes, �the chairs in the Star theatre hall will be same as �Inox� screening theatre�. The similarity does not end there. Inside the Star Multiplex there would be a caf�, fast food stalls and gift shops. There would surely be free gifts, competitions, prizes and pizzas�

 

With the digital revolution, new ideas have started flooding in followed by the newer technologies both in the fields of cinema and theatre. New demands for widening the creative interactions, exchange, and forms, have come up. Now it is important to observe how much space or scope the multiplexes provide for the new kind of films or theatres. Or, indeed, how the new generation of filmmakers or theatre directors can take advantage of these multiplexes.  

 

 

References:  Bangla Shitya O Chalochchitra by Dr. Nisith Kr. Mukhopadhay/ Bangla Rangaloyer Itihasher Upadan by Shankarlal Bhattacharya/ Bangali Modhyobitter Theatre by Dr. Prosun Mukhopadhay/ Rangalayey Amarendranath by Ramapati Dutta/ Rangalayey Trish Bwatsar by Apareshchandra Mukhopadhay/ Natyochinta 20th anniversary issue

 

* Nilanjan Bhattacharya is a researcher and filmmaker, based in Calcutta. 



		
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