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    Theatricality in Andha Yug

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    Atharva Deshmukh
    The play "Andha Yug" by Dharamvir Bharati explores theatricality through its structure and performance. Set on the last day of the Great Mahabharata war, the five-act tragedy uses the characters from the epic to comment on the tragedy of partition in modern India. As a radio play, it incorporates music and was performed outdoors using the landscape. The play balances drama and poetry, adapting classical Indian dramatic structure with a Greek chorus to further its theatrical elements. It provides a profound meditation on the politics of violence through its vast subject matter and performances.

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    Theatricality in Andha Yug

    Uploaded by

    Atharva Deshmukh
    274 views2 pages
    The play "Andha Yug" by Dharamvir Bharati explores theatricality through its structure and performance. Set on the last day of the Great Mahabharata war, the five-act tragedy uses the characters from the epic to comment on the tragedy of partition in modern India. As a radio play, it incorporates music and was performed outdoors using the landscape. The play balances drama and poetry, adapting classical Indian dramatic structure with a Greek chorus to further its theatrical elements. It provides a profound meditation on the politics of violence through its vast subject matter and performances.

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    Theatricality_in_Andha_Yug.doc

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    The play "Andha Yug" by Dharamvir Bharati explores theatricality through its structure and performance. Set on the last day of the Great Mahabharata war, the five-act tragedy uses the characters from the epic to comment on the tragedy of partition in modern India. As a radio play, it incorporates music and was performed outdoors using the landscape. The play balances drama and poetry, adapting classical Indian dramatic structure with a Greek chorus to further its theatrical elements. It provides a profound meditation on the politics of violence through its vast subject matter and performances.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    274 views2 pages

    Theatricality in Andha Yug

    Uploaded by

    Atharva Deshmukh
    The play "Andha Yug" by Dharamvir Bharati explores theatricality through its structure and performance. Set on the last day of the Great Mahabharata war, the five-act tragedy uses the characters from the epic to comment on the tragedy of partition in modern India. As a radio play, it incorporates music and was performed outdoors using the landscape. The play balances drama and poetry, adapting classical Indian dramatic structure with a Greek chorus to further its theatrical elements. It provides a profound meditation on the politics of violence through its vast subject matter and performances.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Theatricality in “Andha Yug”

    Theatricality, though, it seems clear that the concept is closely related to performance or

    performativity; it inspires far more ambivalence and is employed in less consistent ways. “Andha

    Yug” (1953) by Dharamvir Bharati is one of the most significant plays of modern India; Set in

    the last day of the Great Mahabharata war, the five-act tragedy was written in the years following

    the 1947 partition of India atrocities, as allegory to its destruction not just of human lives, but

    also ethical values – the play is a profound meditation on the politics of violence and aggressive

    selfhood. It is the ambivalence of theatrical jurisprudence that makes “Andha Yug” an

    appropriate example to study the theories of theatricality.

    I wish to prove that within the 5 Act structure of the play, Dharamveer Bharati has explored the

    congruence and intricacies of theatricality. Being a radio play, following the traditions of the

    greats like Sambhu Mitra, the play is strewn with music. The paper will continue to explore on

    the fact that the play encompasses a huge vista of events: the last days of the Mahabharata leaves

    a permanent mark on the Indian psyche, especially with the death of Lord Krishna. I will also

    explore the vastness of its subject matter linked to the partition of the country encourages intense

    theatricality of expressive performance, music, stage direction, stage design to such an extent

    that director M.K. Raina directed it at the Purana Quila, Delhi, using a spectacular theatrical

    piece using vast performance area with ramparts and tiered steps.

    I want to prove that Andha-Yug proved for the first time in the history of Hindi literature that

    poetry can be successfully and meaningfully presented in a theatrical form, enhancing the

    theatricality of the play. It tells the story of modern human tragedy symbolically and

    metaphorically using the characters from Mahabharata. Through these characters, Bharati has
    commented upon tragedy of our times. My effort will be to conclude that as a composition

    Andha Yug is a perfect balance between drama and poetry, where the theatricality is further

    expounded by Bharati adapting the classical structure of Indian drama with Greek Chorus.

    Work Cited

    Bharati Dharamvir. Andha Yug (English), Tr. Alok Bhalla. Oxford University Press, USA, 2010.

    Rubin Don The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Asia. Taylor & Francis. 1998

    Encyclopedia Britannica. WEB. 2010

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