Every annual festival ends up announcing itself as bigger, and better, than its previous versions, and the National School of Drama’s Bharat Rang Mahotsav — whose 17th edition concluded this past Wednesday in New Delhi — is no different. In many ways, this is a natural phenomenon. Costs only rise, for one, so budgets do get bigger. And in a densely populated country like India, it stands to reason that the number of theatre practitioners should rise along with the general population, so organisers trying to accommodate the larger numbers have to expand the event.
For one, the “ambience performances” — open-air shows by folk artists, university students and other groups — that were non-ticketed ensured that there was never a dull (or even quiet) moment during the 18-day event, either on the NSD campus or the other venues around Mandi House. These, along with the Theatre Bazaar that featured stalls with all theatre-related products, from books to wigs, and food to lighting equipment, were enough reason to roam around the festival without ever having to buy a ticket. Bringing 130 tribal performers on a single platform for the finale of the festival was also a noteworthy gesture.
Now if only they could have levelled the grounds while they were at it! This, and the lack of attention to access for the disabled, were noticeable lapses in an enthusiastically organised event. After all, the niggling question that will not go away is whether this government funded body, while spending more and more of taxpayers’ money — in a country where hunger, illiteracy and disease are still primary issues — is doing justice, through this festival, to the importance of the dramatic arts in a society. It is a question that can be answered in multiple ways. A single right answer would be as impossible as a single wrong one. But it demands thought. India can be proud to have active government funded national cultural bodies like the NSD, the Sangeet Natak, Lalit Kala and Sahitya Akademies, besides the Indian Council for Cultural Relations at the international level and numerous State level outfits. However, they all need to be aware of their responsibility as public institutions and make themselves more accessible to the common people.
At a time when corruption and political expediency guide the movements of professionals in every sphere, it is arguably left to the artists to speak up fearlessly. How easy it is for them to be a voice of protest in a festival of this sort would be hard to quantify. But there is no doubt that the BRM this year did at some levels try to reach out to the less heard voices, through initiatives like “Marginal in the Market of Theatre” where it was acknowledged that theatre practice in the urban spaces had neglected the root traditions that have remained in rural areas and villages, their practitioners struggling against lack of academic education, money and acquaintance with the ways of a fast changing society.
In a country as vast and diverse as India there cannot be one single way to present a national festival of theatre — which itself is a composite art that includes myriad forms of human expression. But there is no doubt that the 17th BRM, fondly referred to by its Hindi acronym Bharangam by the initiated, made a gigantic effort to be national and public. The urban and the rural, the complex and the simple, the mainstream and the little known, and, yes, the free and the ticketed, all found their bit of space this time.
