Jatra is a popular form of folk theatre from the Eastern region of India. Jatras are usually enactment of epic four-hour-long plays with a cast and comprises music, dance, acting, singing, lighting and dramatic props played on giant outdoor open-air stages. Jatras are often very melodramatic with stylised delivery and exaggerated gestures and orations. Earlier, religious values were communicated to the masses through this powerful medium of Jatra.
Today, the style of writing plays for Jatras has undergone changes. A Jatra now consists of action-packed dialogue with only six to eight songs; still it retains its musical character. People wait for the songs, which in their popularity compete with those from films.
Jatra plays are now, no longer limited to the mythological, historical or fantastical subjects. They include social themes to suit modern taste. The aesthetics of this spectacle dominates Bengal's rural areas and city squares, electrifying the spectators with an almost insane theatrical pleasure.
Jatra is performed on a simple stage with a raised platform and the spectators surrounding it on all sides. The chorus and the musicians take their position off stage. There are no stage properties except a single seat meant to serve various functions-a throne, a bed or a way-side bench. Other properties are brought in and removed by the actors themselves. If dramatic necessity requires, a stagehand seated among the musicians saunters up the stage, pick up the properties, and disappears.
The main Jatra performance is preceded by some preliminaries. About two hours before the performance a stage attendant rings a bell signifying the beginning of the show. Then the second bell rings, where the musicians take their positions and start playing, again as a signal that the show is about to begin.
After a break of fifteen-minutes, a third bell is sounded and a fast paced `concert` begins. Here they constitute the singing of a melody and the playing of several instruments. Soon after the conclusion of the musical overture, a group of dancers rush in from the gangway and begin a dance. Often, the group dance is followed by a solo dance.
Onstage, the actors move in a very theatrical manner. They deliver their speeches in high-sounding words and have to be loud enough to catch the attention of the spectators seated on all sides. Consequently, they espouse an exaggerated style and are heavily made up. Their costumes dazzle, their swords blaze and their words boom to the accompaniment of the crashing cymbals. Sometimes the actors depict subtle emotional moods like love, sorrow, pathos, but the element of exaggeration is always present, as they have to project themselves as larger than life figures.
A Jatra actor can be recognized by the way the actor stands just like a tilted tower. He does not hold himself back but throws his weight forward. Passionate, charged with energy, he explodes into fiery dialogue. He moves like a tornado in the small arena. In spite of continuous action, he has a firm grip on the ground.
Traditionally, women were not allowed to perform, only males acted, in female garbs which was a dominant feature of almost all theatres across the world. Males used to put on female costume, make up and flowers to deck up themselves. Today, although women are accepted in the theatre, they find it difficult to adjust their femaleness to the "women" in the Jatra and men are still "the best women in Jatra".
The orchestra is seated on two ramps, each a bit lower than the platform and running parallel on opposite sides. On one side are the percussion players with drums, cymbals, and bells. The other side holds the flutist, violinists, clarinetist, harmonium player, and two trumpeters.
Huge bulbs, fastened to four poles pitched at the four corners of the illuminate the stage and the sweat-soaked faces of the spectators. The women sit on one side, as in temple gatherings; the men squat on the other three sides. The boys huddle near the rim of the stage. Strings of lights run diagonally across the canopied arena. Here and there are neon tubes throwing bluish gleams.
A gangway, bordered by short bamboo strips and thin ropes, runs from one corner of the stage to the dressing room, which is embellished with a silk curtain. Through this gangway the actor enters and exits. At important moments it becomes a part of the acting area. The gangway can serve as street, or temple path, or highway.
Sometimes while the actor is on the gangway, visually and psychologically present, his exit is overlapped by the entry of another actor who immediately becomes engaged in action on the stage. The overlapping gives the Jatra performance continuity. The actors do not have to disappear completely in the wings.
A Jatra performance is divided into five acts. Following each act, the prompter rings a bell to signal the end of each act. During the intervals between acts, there are songs, dances and comic displays. The performance ends slightly before day-break.
In earlier days the Jatra repertoire swelled with love themes, erotic stories, mythological heroes, historical romances, tales of legendary robbers, saints, social reformers and champions of truth and justice, diluting its religious color. In those days the written text of a Jatra was in song and verse. The actors spoke improvised dialogues. Scenes of humor and the life of the lower strata were in spicy prose. Still music and song dominated. There were easily fifty to sixty songs in a Jatra, which started in the afternoon and lasted till sunrise.
Jatra underwent changes in every period - thematically and musically - but it retained its special flavour. In earlier days there is hardly anyone who in his childhood has not sat for hours watching the colorful Jatra. The popularity of the Jatra still now has been constantly increasing. It stands at the crossroads with cinema and television as its rivals but still it retains its unique mantel as a branch of successful performing art in this region.
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Today, the style of writing plays for Jatras has undergone changes. A Jatra now consists of action-packed dialogue with only six to eight songs; still it retains its musical character. People wait for the songs, which in their popularity compete with those from films.
Jatra plays are now, no longer limited to the mythological, historical or fantastical subjects. They include social themes to suit modern taste. The aesthetics of this spectacle dominates Bengal's rural areas and city squares, electrifying the spectators with an almost insane theatrical pleasure.
Jatra is performed on a simple stage with a raised platform and the spectators surrounding it on all sides. The chorus and the musicians take their position off stage. There are no stage properties except a single seat meant to serve various functions-a throne, a bed or a way-side bench. Other properties are brought in and removed by the actors themselves. If dramatic necessity requires, a stagehand seated among the musicians saunters up the stage, pick up the properties, and disappears.
The main Jatra performance is preceded by some preliminaries. About two hours before the performance a stage attendant rings a bell signifying the beginning of the show. Then the second bell rings, where the musicians take their positions and start playing, again as a signal that the show is about to begin.
After a break of fifteen-minutes, a third bell is sounded and a fast paced `concert` begins. Here they constitute the singing of a melody and the playing of several instruments. Soon after the conclusion of the musical overture, a group of dancers rush in from the gangway and begin a dance. Often, the group dance is followed by a solo dance.
Onstage, the actors move in a very theatrical manner. They deliver their speeches in high-sounding words and have to be loud enough to catch the attention of the spectators seated on all sides. Consequently, they espouse an exaggerated style and are heavily made up. Their costumes dazzle, their swords blaze and their words boom to the accompaniment of the crashing cymbals. Sometimes the actors depict subtle emotional moods like love, sorrow, pathos, but the element of exaggeration is always present, as they have to project themselves as larger than life figures.
A Jatra actor can be recognized by the way the actor stands just like a tilted tower. He does not hold himself back but throws his weight forward. Passionate, charged with energy, he explodes into fiery dialogue. He moves like a tornado in the small arena. In spite of continuous action, he has a firm grip on the ground.
Traditionally, women were not allowed to perform, only males acted, in female garbs which was a dominant feature of almost all theatres across the world. Males used to put on female costume, make up and flowers to deck up themselves. Today, although women are accepted in the theatre, they find it difficult to adjust their femaleness to the "women" in the Jatra and men are still "the best women in Jatra".
The orchestra is seated on two ramps, each a bit lower than the platform and running parallel on opposite sides. On one side are the percussion players with drums, cymbals, and bells. The other side holds the flutist, violinists, clarinetist, harmonium player, and two trumpeters.
Huge bulbs, fastened to four poles pitched at the four corners of the illuminate the stage and the sweat-soaked faces of the spectators. The women sit on one side, as in temple gatherings; the men squat on the other three sides. The boys huddle near the rim of the stage. Strings of lights run diagonally across the canopied arena. Here and there are neon tubes throwing bluish gleams.
A gangway, bordered by short bamboo strips and thin ropes, runs from one corner of the stage to the dressing room, which is embellished with a silk curtain. Through this gangway the actor enters and exits. At important moments it becomes a part of the acting area. The gangway can serve as street, or temple path, or highway.
Sometimes while the actor is on the gangway, visually and psychologically present, his exit is overlapped by the entry of another actor who immediately becomes engaged in action on the stage. The overlapping gives the Jatra performance continuity. The actors do not have to disappear completely in the wings.
A Jatra performance is divided into five acts. Following each act, the prompter rings a bell to signal the end of each act. During the intervals between acts, there are songs, dances and comic displays. The performance ends slightly before day-break.
In earlier days the Jatra repertoire swelled with love themes, erotic stories, mythological heroes, historical romances, tales of legendary robbers, saints, social reformers and champions of truth and justice, diluting its religious color. In those days the written text of a Jatra was in song and verse. The actors spoke improvised dialogues. Scenes of humor and the life of the lower strata were in spicy prose. Still music and song dominated. There were easily fifty to sixty songs in a Jatra, which started in the afternoon and lasted till sunrise.
Jatra underwent changes in every period - thematically and musically - but it retained its special flavour. In earlier days there is hardly anyone who in his childhood has not sat for hours watching the colorful Jatra. The popularity of the Jatra still now has been constantly increasing. It stands at the crossroads with cinema and television as its rivals but still it retains its unique mantel as a branch of successful performing art in this region.
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