Manipuri Society and Its Art & Culture
Contemplation of a Victim Artist
- Part 4 -

Heisnam Kanhailal *

Heisnam Kanhailal

Bio-sketch of Oja Kanhailal

Shri Heisnam Kanhailal was born in a poor family on January 17, 1941 at Keisamthong Thangjam Leirak, Imphal. He is the only child of (Late) H. Pishak Singh and (Late) H. (O) Bidhumukhi Devi. He had to experience a bitter life of loneliness after three months of his birth when his mother left this world. But he was taken care of by his uncle, (Late) H. Angangtombi Singh, the elder brother of his father.

From his childhood he had a passion for performing arts and music, and fortunately, his uncle who was deeply interested in music and theatre, played an instrumental role in introducing him to the creative world. Kanhailal became a devoted follower of his uncle and in course of time he came to be acquainted with the traditional theatre form called Moirang Parba and the western model of proscenium Manipuri theatre.

He received his education from LP School, Keishamthong, Imphal and passed matriculation in year 1959. Although he enrolled for graduation (completed BA II year) in Imphal College, he could not complete the full course on account of poverty. It was in this college that Kanhailal came into close contact with G.C. Tongbra and associated with the Society Theatre for about three years. In 1968 after three months of stay, he was expelled from the National School of Drama. In his own words, he says it was on account of "incompetency and ineptness" as perceived by the School.

At present he is the Director of Kalakshetra Manipur and lives in the scenic surroundings of the Langol Hills and the Lamphel Pat at Meitei Langol, Laimanai, Lamphel, Imphal West, Manipur. He is also the member of Executive Council, Manipur University as nominee of the Visitor, the President of India.

The Journey of Kalakshetra

Kanhailal, along with a few friends, founded Kalakshetra Manipur on July 19, 1969 as an experimental theatre. Since then he has been continuing to experiment with tradition for an alternate theatre. He set a new trend of theatrical expression in contemporary Indian theatre. He worked with Badal Sircar, noted theatre personality, in 1973.

However, he did not sacrifice his own originality or individuality. His alternative theatre is today indentified with the live theatre that he ultimately conceived as the 'theatre of the earth'. In this process of theatre making Heisnam Sabitri (his loving wife and companion; married in 1962) became his major collaborator.

Today, she is popularly received as an acclaimed world class actress of extraordinary power. Their relationship goes beyond the private and exemplifies the ideal collaboration between a director and an actor. The collaboration could ultimately succeed in analysis of whatever artistically accomplished, and formulate an individualized system of theatre making that remains indigenous throughout.

His major and remarkable creations are given below.

Tamnalai (1972), Kabul Keioiba (1973), Imphal '73 (1974), Pebet (1975), Huranbagi Eshei (1977), Laigi Machasinga (1978), Mrityu Shwor (1984), Memoirs of Africa (1985), Rashomon (1987), Migi Sarang (1991), Karna (1997), Draupadi (2000), api (2002), Daghar of Tagore (2006), Uchek Langmeidong (2008), Shadowing the Wild Woman (2011), etc.

He also experimented to locate theatre in the people of different social strata. Remarkable experiments included the following.

o Production of Nupi Lan (Women's War Against British) involved 100 women of Ima Keithel and staged in an open air environment in 1978.
o Production of Sanjennaha (Cowherd), involved villagers at Umathel, a remote village in South Manipur in 1979

He worked with the Paites, one of the major tribes in Churachandpur District and produced Thanghou Leh Liandou in Paites dialect in 1980. Likewise, he worked with the youths of the Rabha tribe of Assam and in a way groomed them. His followers such as Sukracharjyo Rabha and Rayanti Rabha were awarded Yuba Puraskar by the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi. He also groomed the Tripuris of Tripura.

Workshop & Exposition

Kanhailal has conducted around 15 major workshops in the last 20 years for actors from different cultural backgrounds in India. The workshops particularly focused on his actor training system for live theatre. The workshops were organized in different locations, urban and rural, and mostly sponsored by the National School of Drama and other cultural institutions and agencies. This, in a way, facilitated in producing a large number of following of Oja in the country. Since the last ten years, he and Sabitri have been conducting workshops for the second year students of NSD every year on his system of acting.

He conducted short term programmes on exposition of his system particularly for the young practitioners and academics. He could draw the academic attention of the young research scholars of the country and their participation in the practice thereof. He is the only theatre practitioner in the country on whose work young research scholars have been working, particularly from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Milia Islamia, Assam University, Hydrabad University and so on. Since the year 2012, he has been training young practitioners from France, Sweden, America, South Africa, etc.

Travel

Kanhailal is a widely travelled personality. He has been extensively touring with his plays and staged around 100 (hundred) shows so far in different parts of the country. In 1987, Pebet and Memoirs of Africa were shown at Tokyo, Toga and Ningata, under the sponsorship of the Japan Performing Arts Centre. In 1991 under the sponsorship of ICCR, New Delhi, he participated at the Third Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre with his play, Migi Sarang (The Human Cage), at Cairo.

The play was assessed as one of the best six of the festival and Heisnam Sabitri, in the role of Thambal, won the Best Actress Award of the panel of critics. In 2002, he participated at the First Asian Contemporary Theatre Festival held in Singapore. The play Nupi was performed at the festival.

Film

In 1985, Kanhailal produced a short theatre film based on his play, Pebet. The film secured the Best Short Fiction Film in the International Short Film Festival held at Calcutta in 1985. It was screened in Panorama section of the International Film Festival of India, held at New Delhi in 1985.

Research & Fellowship

Kanhailal was awarded a research project by the Ford Foundation for three years (1985–87). He was a Jawaharlal Nehru National Fellow (1990–91) and Emeritus Fellow (1998–99). He was awarded a research project by the Theatre Works, Singapore, to study performance tradition in Indonesia and Malaysia in 2002.

Award

He was honored with Padma Shri by the Government of India for his dedicated works on Theatre in 2003. He is also the recipient of the following awards:
o Manipur State Kala Akademi Award for theatre in 1982
o Kendriya Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for direction for the year 1985, thereby becoming the first ever awardee of SNA in the North-East in the field of modern theatre
o Natya Ratna in 1997 by the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad
o Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow in 2011
o Tanveer Award of Pune in 2011
o Kamal Kumari National Award in 2011

Publication

There are numerous writings on Kanhailal. The most notable one is, Theatre of Kanhailal: Pebet & Memoirs of Africa written by Rustom Bharucha, an American trained scholar and theatre director. It was published by the Seagul Books, Calcutta in 1990.

Kanhailal has authored numerous articles and plays. Theatre for the Ritual of Suffering was written and published by him in 1997. A new book entitled Ritual Theatre is soon to be published by the Seagul Books, Kolkata.

His article, "Ritual Theatre" was published as one of the chapters of the internationally renowned anthology, Theatre in Theory 1900-2000, compiled by David Krasner and published by Wiley-Blackwell, London and New York in 2007. The compilation comprises nearly 100 critical essays written by the twentieth century's most influential playwrights, directors, scholars, and philosophers. It features the writings of Oscar Wilde, Georg Lukács, Bertolt Brecht, Gertrude Stein, Zora Neale Hurston, T.S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, George Steiner, Roland Barthes, Raymond Williams, Judith Butler and Herbert Blau, and many others. This book is considered to be the most complete work of its kind to date on theatrical aesthetics, dramatic criticism, and performance theory.

Previous Dr. Thingnam Kishan Memorial Lectures

o First (2010), "Beyond the Trapping of the Ethnic: Ethics and the Political", delivered by Dr. Prasenjit Biswas, Department of Philosophy, North East Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya.
o Second (2011), "Politics of Internal Security Acts 1947-2001", delivered by Kumar Sanjay Singh, Department of History, Swami Sardhananda College, University of Delhi.
o Third (2012), "Conflict, Vulnerabilities and Policy Agenda in the North East", delivered by Haorongbam Sudhir Singh, Department of History, Manipur University, Canchipur.

About DTKF

Dr. Thingnam Kishan Foundation (DTKF) is established with a concern to bring about social, cultural, legal, economic advancement of our society. On the basis of this broader frame of objectives, DTKF shall engage and work on various spheres mainly with regard to the field of knowledge, research, social and economic justice, and empowerment of the underprivileged. DTKF shall emphasise not only on a new social imagination, which would herald human dignity, harmony, peace and development but also work with a commitment towards exploring a wholesome alternative order.

DTKF shall work on accumulation and enhancement of knowledge and information through interpreting, re-interpreting of existing knowledge and further exploration of ideas which would shape our immediate and long-term social, cultural, economic and political concerns. The Foundation shall take up educational activities as one of the key intervening areas.

The Foundation's primacy laid on education is rooted in the fact that Late Dr. Kishan was a scholar who dreamt of an inclusive education system and always considered education as a realm of critical knowledge and source of progressive social engineering. Keeping in line with the thoughts of Dr. Kishan, the Foundation considers that there is a need for a continuous possibility of creating collectively shared understanding and cooperation with those who are working with similar objectives. The educational activities of the Foundation shall emphasis on a wholesome alternative knowledge systems; education that gives importance to indigenous knowledge system, dismantle social and class stratification, and development that is inclusively people oriented.

DTKF also believes that for a better initiation of a vision for future and rectification of our own vicissitude of hopes and aspirations for a dignified life, we need to integrate our cultural life with other spheres of our existence. We need to share views on differences, insights which are seen and unseen, expected and unexpected by enabling ourselves to enjoy the position to speak and listen, discuss and dissent, agree and trust and celebrate the spirit of putting all voices in a dialogue, all spoken and heard.

With a hope to begin in small steps and have its due restitution in times to come no matter how long it may be, the Foundation shall organise seminars, conference, workshops, film screening, publication of research works, etc. that the society need to see, watch, read, listen and discuss together.

Concluded...