Marathi Sangeetnatak - A Trail Blazer to the Success of Professional Urban Modern Marathi Theatre

Abstract

The Marathi Theatre has a very rich and prosperous heritage of over 160 plus years now. Spurt as a means of entertainment to the royal courtiers and officials in the form of dramatic poetry of Vishnuprasad Bhave, it magnified in terms of form and content through innumerable stages of modifications and experimentation subject to the changing social, political and religious conditions and taste of its Marathi audience. Hand-in-hand, it also adopted immensely from a vast variety of theatrical forms of the day to achieve desired excellence from time to time.
The present paper aims at undertaking critical evaluation of the development of drama as a literary genre with special focus on the role of music and songs in the Sangeetnatak – a specific dramatic form which enjoyed its hey-days for several decades of Nineteenth century. The development of this dramatic form has been taken up for discussion in simultaneity to the changing circumstances and the taste of the middle-class Marathi theatre-goers. Further, it is attempted to evaluate the contribution of various notable playwrights, whose inherent caliber and dramatic skills, helped in establishing Marathi drama as a remarkable literary genre of Maharashtra. The journey of Sangeetnatak in terms of how it ushered, developed, underwent modifications, attained excellence and withered against the onslaught of cinema has been delineated with interesting details.