Quality stories lacking in Mobile Theatres of Assam?
In Assam, the mobile theatre is an integral part of our lives and has a rich history which started way back in the 1960′s when Achyut Lahkar, widely regarded as the father figure of Assamese mobile theatre, started the first ever mobile theatre of Assam. Since then, many mobile theatres have come into existence and many have got vanished with time as well. But theatres like Kohinoor, Awahan, Bhagyadevi, Hengool etc. are still having the lion’s share in terms of popularity. The mobile theatres are mostly popular amongst the people belonging to the rural areas and it is because of the viewers that it has completed more than 50 years in this field.
Everyone would agree when I say that being a part of our lives, one cannot deny the fact that the mobile theatres have been placed with respect in the hearts of people. Talking about all the love that people have given them, do the mobile theatres really care about the viewers now? If not for any other purpose, then for the people who are financially weak and who usually save money every year for a specific purpose, i.e. watching a play in the theatres! Since the ticket rates have gone up, if they were watching two or three plays in a year, it has now come down to one play in a year.
Having no issues with the ticket rates, people actually want to enjoy the play staged in the theatres regardless of the number of plays they watch in a season. But are the mobile theatres being able to provide quality storylines in their plays? It is certainly questionable as regards to last few years. It seems that people are now attending the theatres more out of the love they have developed over the years for the mobile theatres than not out of appetite.
Glamour was mainly introduced to the world of mobile theatres with the introduction of Shakuntala theatre and people accepted it because it was different from the mainstream stories and provided a new taste. But the love for glamour dramas is temporary and people again started starving for those dramas which has a good story in it. In a drama or play of 90 minutes, inclusion of 5/6 songs does not make sense. Songs were there in earlier times too but nowadays a logical reasoning for inclusion of a song is not there. Even if a play has a story to tell, the songs disturb the balance of the story. Today the audience is also attracted to the theatres by means of publicity in various media and the ones who spend more on publicity have earned lots of audience. But the feedback of people after watching such dramas which have created such hype has been negative or, neglected. In fact, it is during Nalbari Raas Mahotsav where we get to see a clear picture of what I am trying to say. Often it is not the mobile theatre which is said to have broken all records of shows and collections and comes out to be appreciated by the people during the shows in Nalbari Raas Mahotsav. I am not critical of any mobile theatre, all I am saying is that the producers should stage the best story irrespective of writers rather than concentrating on one or two particular writers. Mobile theatres are an integral part of our culture and Assamese people are very sensitive towards it. Hence it becomes quite difficult to restore the faith once gone. So I hope the producers of mobile theatres would look into the matter and do what is best for the people. For that case, they should listen to what people have to say and take all the feedbacks in a positive way. Anyways, I am not taking away any credit from them and what I said is for their good only. Mobile theatres have a great history and when something has a history it often becomes quite difficult to carry on that legacy and it’s high time for steps to be taken to carry forward that legacy that has been sculpted.
