Script Bengali Drama Pdf
Priamo Gregory
Rare and unique material of, and on, Bengali drama covering the 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection includes texts of formal 'modern' drama, texts of jatra or traditional Bengali folk theatre, books of songs from plays, and secondary material of that period.
Nearly all the material is in the Bengali language and script. Small parts (usually in the same volume as the Bengali text) are in English (Roman script), Sanskrit (Devanagari script) and Hindi (Devanagari script).
This project will digitise the wide collection of rare and unique material of, and on, Bengali drama held by a private collector, Dr Devajit Bandyopadhyay. The collection covers the 19th and early 20th centuries, and includes texts of formal 'modern' drama, texts of jatra or traditional Bengali folk theatre, books of songs from plays, and secondary material of that period.
The collection is carefully stored in Dr Bandyopadhyay's private flat, but much of the material is cheaply printed and produced, and so preserves badly, especially in Kolkata's hot humid climate. In addition much of it was in a poor condition when it reached him. At present, all the material can be copied, though often slowly and cautiously owing to its brittle state. Some items are already badly discoloured.
1. 'Formal' Bengali drama on Western models for the urban theatre: volumes of single play-texts, collections of play-texts, and studies. This wide variety of volumes also has a wide range of publishers, formal and informal. Many items were produced for private distribution only. Many others are made unique by virtue of the signatures, marginalia, or other manuscript insertions they contain. The collection is thus important not only for the history of drama but also for Bengali bibliography, book history and printing history. Finally, it is important for Bengali social history of the 19th century, the crucial development of new westernised cultural norms. The rise of a new patriotism, leading on to the freedom movement, can also be traced in many of the texts.
2. 'Jatra' or traditional Bengali folk theatre: this is a uniquely large collection of such texts, covering all major types, mythological, historical and socio-political. They are not linked to the world of formal or elite publishing, but to a different category of popular publishers. Basically, they are much closer to the tradition of oral transmission, so that any printed documentation is of special value.
3. There is also a large body of dramatic song-books, with and without notation. Drama provided a chief platform for song-writing and the development of new musical conventions. This collection contains some extremely rare volumes of theatrical and other songs, including unique manuscript volumes of material not known from other sources.
Apart from the documentary value, the collection offers unique opportunities for historical and thematic study. Bengal saw the first major rise of Western-type drama in India. The Western influence derived largely from Shakespeare and other Renaissance drama, and had suggestive resemblances with traditional folk theatre. The entire process can be traced through this archive, combining jatra with Western-type drama.
Both the lines of development, jatra and Western-type drama, are living influences on contemporary Bengali theatre. In fact, its main formal identity is defined through various balances and combinations of these two influences. Few practising theatrepeople have the opportunity to access this type of rare material. If it is now made accessible, some results could be expected in the future development of Bengali drama. This could be a rare instance of an archive influencing a current art form in a major way.
The material will be digitally copied and the original material will remain with its present owner, Dr Devajit Bandyopadhyay. The copies will be held by the British Library and the School of Cultural Texts and Records. Jadavpur University.
The output comprises invaluable access to a great range of rare material - much of it unique, the rest known from only one other copy that may often prove inaccessible even to researchers based in Bengal.
The original material remains in Dr Devajit Bandyopadhyay's private residence in Kolkata. Digital copies have been deposited with the British Library and the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and may be consulted at either of these places. Another set of copies has been given to Dr Bandyopadhyay.
The original material, being privately owned and located, is not normally accessible. In case of special need, researchers may approach Dr Bandyopadhyay through the Director, School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, but the final decision rests with Dr Bandyopadhyay, the owner.
The project has greatly enhanced the training and experience of a team of young professionals that the School of Cultural Texts and Records is trying to build up, virtually for the first time in India. It is hoped that this will help to foster a culture of digital archiving and cultural informatics.
Some of the criteria I considered were the quality of the typography and the unique interpretations of the film titles. The posters covered scripts beyond my expertise, but I was able to benefit from other designers and native readers who also doubled up as film enthusiasts and tapped into their ability to tell me more about the design and films itself. The collection has examples of inspiring designs that I hope will highlight the possibilities of play and experimentation that are possible in Indic scripts.
Bollywood and both the Tollywoods are the three industries represented in the first set of Indian film posters to be part of the collection at the Archive. The fifteen posters below cover a time span of almost seven decades, with some designs from a pre-independent India. They also cover a wide geographic area and capture some of the linguistic plurality of the country. The selection shows the use of English, Hindi (Devanagari script), Urdu, Bengali, and Telugu in posters. In some of the Hindi posters, the title is written in multiple scripts, which helps it speak to a wider audience, one that might understand Hindi but not read it.
Like Kāśīnāth (1942), Grihadaha is based on the writing of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. In the eponymous novel, Chattopadhyay weaves an intricate story depicting complex human behavior, at the heart of which lies a love triangle. The shape is put to repetitive use on the poster as a decorative element, and also to frame the stills from the film. The title lettering itself carries sharp triangular terminals, with the letters snugly fitting into the space available. The remaining text on the poster is a lot more calligraphic and traditional.
This film was a remake of a Malayali film by a South Indian production house Gemini Studios, who chose to remake it in Hindi. The imagery features a still from the film with its protagonist and her two children. The title calls for a change in society and deals with the topic of mill workers and their rights. The poster has similarities to Soviet revolutionary designs, with the strong use of reds and yellows, and wedge-like forms to anchor the text and illustration to one corner. These decisions might underline the socialist themes of the movie itself. The Madras (now Chennai) production company used a printer from the city itself for a Hindi film that was unlikely to have any viewership as the language would have been unfamiliar in South India. The poster uses Hindi and would have been used to advertise the film further up north.
The poster for this Telugu drama wields photography, graphics, and color for a captivating design. The two-point perspective for the title lettering not only gives it heft, but also depth. Horse riders charging below the lettering bolsters the illusion of the title popping out at the viewer. The distinct design was reused in other posters for the movie. Its publicity design is attributed to S.V. Chalapathi Rao, with the art credited to B.N. Krishna. Type designer and researcher Vaishnavi Murthy Yerkadithaya, points out that the geometric, boxy style was not uncommon for movie posters of the time. She also pointed me toward the Anu Infotech catalog, which has a host of geometric typefaces for Telugu, but remarked that the title design treated the vattu characters with a lot of care, especially the మొ and ళ్ళ, each with marks above and below the letters drawn to fit well into the block.
Poster designs have always competed for viewers time and attention. Lettering by hand meant that designers were not restricted by the typesetting limitations of the time, which were particularly cruel to Indian scripts in the last century. The skill of the artists also afforded a flair and technique that was likely the result of disregard for more traditional typography. With the exception of Satyajit Ray, even within India, very few of the artists and printers that have been credited on the posters have any significant recognition. For some of these creators, these posters are the only record of their work. Hopefully, this collection will also help acknowledge lesser-known contributors to the Indian graphic design canon.
Tanya George is a Mumbai-based designer and educator with a wide-ranging freelance practice that includes designing letterforms for brand identities as well as fonts across different Indian scripts. She also conducts type walks around Mumbai, along with typography workshops, and writes about type.
I am grateful to Apsara Bandopadhyay and Rabindranath Mukhopadhyaya for patiently answering my questions about the Bengali movies in this collection and the letterforms on the posters. I am also fortunate to have Vaishnavi Murthy Yerkadithaya respond to my queries about the Telugu films with so much valuable insight. This article would not have been possible without their contributions.
Interestingly, but at the cost of being unfair to the centuries-old traditional performances, many academic researchers verify 1795 as the origin of Bengali theatre. Calcutta, the then capital of British India, saw in that year two theatre performances on the proscenium stage. These were Bengali translations by Goloknath Dash of two European plays, one by Molire and one by an Englishman, Richard Paul Jodrell. A third European, the Russian Gerasim Stefanovich Lebedeff is more importantly mentioned by theatre historians as the pioneer/initiator of Bengali theatre. The story is true, but the rationale of chronicling is culturally prejudiced.
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