{"id":344,"date":"2009-06-11T05:17:09","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T11:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amroha.co.in\/blog\/?p=344"},"modified":"2012-12-05T05:53:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T11:53:19","slug":"habib-tanvir-the-soul-of-indian-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/habib-tanvir-the-soul-of-indian-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Habib Tanvir: The soul of Indian theater"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Habib-Tanvir\"<\/a>

Habib-Tanvir<\/p><\/div>\n

Habib Tanvir was one of the most popular Hindi playwrights, a theatre director, poet and actor. He is the writer of plays such as, Agra Bazar (1954) and Charandas Chor. He is most known for his work with Chhattisgarhi tribals, at the Naya Theatre.<\/p><\/div>\n

THINK OF Indian theatre and culture,\u00a0the\u00a0very first\u00a0image that immediately conjures up\u00a0is Habib Tanvir. He was a trail blazer, a pioneer in Hindi theatre. Like Gandhi Ji, for him the real theatre existed in villages.<\/p>\n

He started his literary career as a poet with a pen-name \u201cTanvir\u201d and very soon graduated as full time playwright, director and actor. He loved challenges and difficulties and succeeded in overcoming them. Born on Sept 1, 1923, in\u00a0Raipur\u00a0(Bihar at that time) he did his BA from Morris college\u00a0Nagpur\u00a0in 1944, and MA from\u00a0Aligarh\u00a0Muslim University.<\/p>\n

His uncle used to stay in the interior of the\u00a0Bihar\u00a0and his regular visits to them brought him near to country folks which fascinated him.\u00a0In 1945, he moved to Bombay and joined All\u00a0India\u00a0Radio (AIR) Bombay as a producer, while in Bombay, he wrote songs for Hindi films and even acted in a few. He also joined the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) and became an integral part of Indian people’s Theatre Association (IPTA) as an actor.<\/p>\n

He moved to\u00a0Delhi\u00a0and joined with Qudsia Zaidi\u2019s \u201cHindustani Theatre.\u201d This was one of the most important periods of his life. He met Moneeka Mishra, an upcoming actor-director, whom he was to later marry. The same year he produced the hall mark drama \u201cAgra Bazar\u201d. It was based on the works of 18 century writer Nazir Akbarabadi. In this play he used the raw talents from the Okhla village and student of Jamia Millia Islamia. It was a unique experiment is the sense that it was staged within the four walls of a hall but in market place, open bazaar. It was a great success and inspired him to experience further with Chattisgarh folk artists. \u201cChanrandas Chor\u201d was one such adventure where the highlight was the\u00a0Nach\u00a0<\/em>– A chorus, a narration through Chattisgarhi folk songs.<\/p>\n

His theatre has always been known for its utter simplicity in style, presentation and technique. Despite all that austerity his plays were eloquent and powerful with a deep story line.\u00a0One could see the progressive glimpses of European fads intelligently blended with Indian values in his experiments. He was trained in Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London in middle fifties.<\/p>\n

In 1990 he took up the direction of \u201cZahreele Hawa\u201d based on\u00a0Bhopal Gas tragedy.<\/p>\n

He had his share of controversies as RSS and BJP didn\u2019t spare a secular Indian artist like him from roughing up for his \u201cPonga Pandit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The doyen of Indian theatre died on 8 th June 2009 after a brief illness and the\u00a0world\u00a0of theatre lost a worthy son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Habib Tanvir was one of the most popular Hindi playwrights, a theatre director, poet and actor. He is the writer of plays such as, Agra Bazar (1954) and Charandas Chor. He is most known for his work with Chhattisgarhi tribals, at the Naya Theatre. THINK OF Indian theatre and culture,\u00a0the\u00a0very first\u00a0image that immediately conjures up\u00a0is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":338,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[181,182,183],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","tag-agra-bazar","tag-charandas-chor","tag-chhattisgarhi-tribals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489,"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amroha.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}