Theatre  of M.P.

Folk Theatres of Madhya Pradesh

Madhya pradesh ke Theatres

The history of theatre in M.P. is quite old. Before independence, there is no fixed knowledge about theatre in M.P. It’s chronological & systematic knowledge is available only after independence.

The evolution of theatre in M.P. is as follows :

a) Gwalior : Before independence there was a famous theatre group in Gwalior known as Artist combine, founded in 1937 by SadashivraoBhagvat. It only played  Marathi plays .

Since 1951, it also started Hindi theatre. In 1987, it produced theatre "Bina Diwaro ka ghar" Written by Mannu Bhandari.

b) Indore : In Indore, the history of theatre begins , with ..Baba Dike . In 1944 he founded "Natya -Bharti" .With this organization the famous artists …Vishnu Chichlankar&Barpute were related . Although, all three were Marathis but they have contributed even for Hindi theatre.Above theatre has produced plays like Mayuri , Noorjahan , Malvika-Agnimitram , Abhigyanshakuntalam .

 In Indore, another group "Prayog" was founded by..Satish Mehta. This group has produced famous plays like Dularibai, Juloos,  Bakri, Jadu-Jungle, Andho ka hathi etc.

c) Ujjain: In Ujjain , theatre activities were very old, but they were activated in 1965. Rajendra Gupta directed  Dharmveer Bharti's  Andhayug , which was applauded , the same time kalidas academy was founded, which promoted theatre activities.

d) Jabalpur: In Hindi theatre , the father of theatre movement in …Jabalpur was Seth Govind Das. He founded…… first moving theatre.A famous group "Anupam Kala Mandir" has played "Aadhe-Adhure" .Another mandlis were "Khandwa natyamandli”,  ‘Pushpanjali’, Tandav kala mandir etc.

But in Jabalpur , the theatre activities were activated by…. Alakhanandan& his group Vevechana,. with this group famous satirist HarishankarParsai was also associated . This group played ‘Chanda Bedni’, ‘Andhere me’, ‘Mukta Bazar’ etc.

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