Ranabir Mangang's journey to Theatre of Simplicity
- A discussion on Theatre at Wangoi -

Rajmani Ayekpam *

Since the last three or four years Ougri Theatre Repertory has been organising regularly a discussion programme on theatre on May Day at various temple courtyards of the State as annual feature, which turns out to be a significant one.

From this experience, it can be understood that temple courtyard can be used as a place for exchange of our intellect, a place for exchange of our understanding rather than a place for ritualistic purpose only. Even many of theatre practitioners of this State claimed that our theatres are groomed from the courtyard of temple but there is a habit of forgetting their origin.

However, the Ranabir Mangang and its Ougri Theatre come forward to the courtyard of many temples and ritualised them to get the thing which they pursue. This is one of the Ranabir Mangang's philosophies and its journeys to theatre of simplicity pursued by Ougri Theatre. Perhaps, theatre of simplicity has more meaningful at this stage.

From my personal experience of this year's May Day programme that one theatre worker sacrificed all his old habits of drinking and any other bad habits when it was featured at the courtyard of God Keirunghanba-Keirunghanbi, Ima Imoinu of Wangoi Bazar.

The programme was the fourth one after earlier programmes at Chingoi Baruni, Kaina and Langol. The programme was organised by National Theatre and Literary Studies (NTLS), a study forum of Ougri Theatre in collaboration with Wangoi Dramatic Union and Manipur Theatre Academy (MATA), Wangoi on May Day. It's a memorable experience that it can't made them good the whole society but it can make one person good on that day. The courtyard of the temple had made good effect on the minds of delegates of that day.

People of this State considered any temple courtyard as a sacred place so that they tried to distance from any cheating or bad habit. On that day, every delegate participating at the seminar, prayed to the idols of Ima Imoinu and Lord Sanamahi which is situated adjacent to the temple of Ima Imoinu before coming to the seminar courtyard.

After praying to the idols of lma lmoinu and Lord Sanamahi they cleaned their mind and body. The best example was that Chief Guest of the function Shri Salam Joy Singh, MLA, Wangoi Constituency, delivered his speech at his utmost sincerity leaving all his hi-fi politician's habit which is commonly seen by the people of this State.

Again, he donated a sum of Rs 5000 to the organisers which was very much helpful for the latter. The organisers are very committed to the cause of theatre movement in the State but their incomes are very poor. They organised the seminar with their instinct only not by their income.

The inaugural function began with Shri Salam Joy Singh, MLA, Wangoi Constituency and Prof IS Kangjam, Professor, Dept of Hindi, Manipur University were the Chief Guest and the President respectively.

Naba Wareppa, President of the Theatre Centre, Manipur was the moderator of the academic session while Budha Chingtham, theatre critic, gave the welcome and key note address of the seminar. Four resource person Khoisnam Ranabir, Dr Sushila, Dr Y Radheshyam Singh and Rajmani Ayekpam presented their papers. Those papers presented papers generated lot of heat about the horizon of Manipuri theatre.

Khoisnam Ranabir's brief discussion on theatre movement in Bishnupur district generated lot of heat and showed a good picture of how good rural theatre is. His discovery of Sangeet Natak Mandir, Nambol was started before the Manipur Dramatic Union which claimed to be not only the first standing theatre house but also the first non­Governmental organisation in the State.

It gives a room for further study in the history of Manipuri theatre. Dr Shushila's paper highlighted present crisis of Manipuri theatre. Even Manipuri theatre being proud of giving its performance at many places of the globe Manipuri theatre of today faces the crisis of survival.

Dr Y Radheshyam's paper on theatre movement in Thoubal district was another finding in the history of Manipuri theatre. His paper challenged many of urban centric scholars of Manipur. Many of urban centric scholars of Manipuri theatre neglected the rural's healthy atmosphere of the State.

Rajmani Ayekpam's paper on Ranabir Mangang's theatre of simplicity was also another unexplored area of Manipuri theatre. It will be an interesting experience to highlight some of the aspects of theatre of simplicity. The sound was like magical when I heard the phrase 'theatres of simplicity' amidst today's sophisticated multi-media aided theatrical productions.

My curiosity is just beginning itself with this phrase before I go into deeper. Theatre involved lot of actors, light, set & props, musicians, back stage artists etc and lot more. But, how's it possible, is my question.

Ranabir Mangang, an energetic young theatre worker of this State, had been experimenting with this form of theatre (theatre of simplicity) for the last seventeen years out of his 25 years of theatre life.

According to him, subject matter of the play is more important than what the picture of production showed us. To entertain audience is the thing of the past. If the subject matter of play is the immediate necessity of society the play can be successful since the production is not for actors but the society's utmost necessity.

To say theatre of simplicity is not an easy phrase when it came into action. To show simply is the biggest challenge to every artiste. Modern man needs lot of spices when he prepares his dishes. Just simple cooking can't satisfy him easily.

However, one is adapted to the simple food and this will be the best food in the world. Likewise, a simple theatre production with minimum props & sets can be successful when the subject matter of the play is very strong and immediate needs of the society and moreover those actors charged much energy during the play.

The Ougri theatre, Ranabir Mangang's experimental group showed us two plays "Numit Kappa (Shooting the Sun)" and "Choukri Hougatpa (Erect the Chair)" to prove his 'philosophy 'theatre of simplicity'. From this experience, it can be understood that a play can be successful if the subject matter of play is very strong even though the performance of the actors are not so good.

Moreover, in order to attract the attention of the audience those actors who performed the play should be very good one as their highly energetic performance should subside all the other necessities of a theatre production.

To choose a very good theme and the highly trained performer are the two best things for the theatre of simplicity. It's not an easy job to select a very good theme of a play for every production. A group of committed writers, scholars, committed theatre workers are needed for this philosophy. A group of highly trained performers ie like professionals are also needed to achieve this goal.

In order to fulfill his philosophy of theatre of simplicity Ranabir needs a group of committed writers, scholars and theatre workers for a long time. But, how is it possible in this media-hyped world of arts & entertainment. A good financial support is needed and on the other hand a group of dedicated theatre workers also.

It's a challenge how far Ranabir and its Ougri theatre go about for these coming years. But, his theatre of simplicity broke every preconceived mind of Manipuri theatre practitioners. Though there's a lot of good theatre practitioners in Manipur but few are supported by firm philosophical background.

In this context, Ranabir Mangang's theatre of simplicity is one of the areas not to be neglected by theatre scholars, in and out of Manipur.