Mobile Theatres in Assam

History, Culture and Present

Abstract

Theatre has been a cultural recognition of India. It has a glorious past in form of Classical Sanaskrit performances, theatrical strategies to illuminate the generations of theatre lovers. The decadence of classical plays in course of time paved a way to folk performances in different parts of the country. There was a concrete bond in these performances even though they were in heterogeneous languages and belonged to different regions. The basis was incidents, stories from the great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharatha.The reverence for these epics continued to flow in the veins ofthe Indians to shape preforming culture of the nation. Assam witnessed a wider acceptance of masses to the folk presentations popularly known as Jatra.It was originated in neighbouring state West Bengal but captivated Assamese’ minds in course of time. The Mobile or moving theatre, popularly known as Bhramyaman isa twentieth century phenomenon, has its roots in Jatra. The towns like Pathshala, Nagaon in lower Assam have more than sixty mobile theatre companies which have been luring the artistic minds of the people from more than six decades. The present research paper attempts to explore the historical development, culture and thepresent condition of this theatrical mass movement.The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly created a mountain of problems before these theatre groups but the survivalis unquestionable as it illustrates Assamese identity.