Transcending styles with time

Shivaprakash: How did Ima get interested in theatre?

Sabitri: Interest in theatre! Both my maternal and paternal families were all interested in pung (traditional percussion), isei (song and music), jagoi (dance), and theatre. My first guru is my aunt—second elder sister of my father—Gouramani, a famous actress of the time. My father was also a band musician, a clarinet (she pronounces as clanet) master. The family had a Gouralila (a mandap theatre of Vaishnav tradition) group; they participated in bashok singing (traditional group singing). I was brought up in such a rich performance environment. I think there is a hereditary association. I started playing small roles of a little boy at the age of six years…wearing a half-pant, a khudei (traditional small dhoti). Though I was born in Mayang Imphal (20 km away from Imphal), I stayed most of the time at Keishamthong Longjam Leirak, my aunt's house (very near to Kanhailal's house).

Shivaprakash: Did you go to school?

Sabitri: I studied till fifth class. I could not even complete the fifth class, since I began touring with my aunt's theatre group. I don't know Hindi and English, but I can read Manipuri in Bengali script. So, you see, I read the newspaper in the morning (laughs).

Shivaprakash: Did you go for any formal training of Gouranggalila?

Sabitri: I started playing in an opera group of my aunt when I was seven or eight years old. We would go from mandap to mandap, performing Gourangga Mahaprabhu during the kang festival (rath yatra). I played the role of Prabhu Nimai Sanyas. My aunt, my first guru, gave me the basic training on how to play the role.

Shivaprakash: Your aunt trained you every day?

Sabitri: Yes. In the process of making the performance, she taught me what to do, how to do it. After every performance, she gave me feedback and taught me. She kept on instructing me, 'Do like this. Do this way.' It was a seasonal performance during the time of the kang festival for 10 days. During other times, we did stage drama.

Shivaprakash: So, you were already a trained actor when you met Kanhailal. How did you meet him? Was it an arranged marriage or love marriage?

Sabitri: Oja Kanhailal went for a training of agriculture in Allahabad. With some of his friends in Allahabad, including Sagolsem Indrakumar, they decided to do a play. Oja's mother was also a nata sankirtana singer. His uncle who brought him up was also a drama practitioner. So, he was also interested in theatre. During his stay in Allahabad, they decided to do a play in Imphal during the Durga Puja holiday. He wrote a play called Layeng Ahanba (The First Treatment) in Allahabad. While coming to Imphal for the Durga Puja festival, he hired me as an actor of the play. He directed the play. He was not a good director at that time. But he had the quality of leadership as a student leader. I feel that he gave the name of the play as Layeng Ahanba (The First Treatment) because it was his first treatment or experiment in the field of theatre.

Shivaprakash: What kind of training did Kanhailal have as a director?

Sabitri: Earlier, he was closely working with the playwright, Oja Geetchandra (popularly known as G.C. Tongbra). Oja Geetchandra was popular for his phagilila (satire play). Kanhailal was once the secretary of G.C. Tongbra's theatre group, Society Theatre. (Shivaprakash interrupted: 'How old was Kanhailal at that time?') He was around 20 years old. It was a students' theatre group. This was when he was studying in Imphal College. Oja Geetchandra was teaching there. Apart from this, he was born in Keishamthong, very much near to the hall of MDU (Manipur Dramatic Union). There was an influence of his birthplace also. He told me he used to watch lots of plays in MDU. During his childhood, his father used to take him to MDU hall to watch drama. He studied in Kha Imphal High School. I was told that he used to lead in drama in Saraswati Puja or Durga Puja during his school days as well. Those were his trainings.

Shivaprakash: Ima, you played the role of Nimai Sanyasi in Gouranggalila. Then, heroine in realist theatre. How did you shift from one type of acting to another?

Sabitri: Earlier, childhood acting style was a style of Vaishnav bhakti, a religious tradition. It was seasonal. Apart from the religious performances, I also did stage drama with my aunt, Gouramani. The stage drama of those times was tremendously influenced by Hindi films. Those acting styles were imitation of acting in Hindi films. Romance of hero-heroine (she demonstrates). It is also said that Manipuri stage drama originated from Bengali theatre. So, most of the ojha (teachers) of the time taught us their acting styles.

Shivaprakash: Did you empathize with the Vaishnav bhakti tradition? Were you actually involved in bhakti or just acting during your childhood? What was the subject of your inspiration?

Sabitri: During my childhood, neither I was acting nor involved in bhakti. I was innocent and doing what had been instructed by my aunt and elders. I would wear a dhoti with no shirt, because I had no breasts then. Would carry a shawl on my shoulders, and wear an uurik (bead necklace) and lokun (sacred thread). I was a simple child, following the instructions of my elders. During the performance, they would sometimes prompt me: 'bend your neck' or 'keep your hands like this'. I followed them. I didn't know what I was doing was acting. But I had some strange emotions, feelings that what I was doing was for God, though I was not fully involved in bhakti. I sang, 'Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna. Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. Hare Rama Rama Rama…' I sang happily and I enjoyed it.

Shivaprakash: So, there was total involvement. Now, I want to understand the transition from those days of acting style to realist acting and, then, expressionist acting.

Sabitri: As I said earlier, during my childhood, I did as instructed by my elders and I totally enjoyed. I was involved. Before I met Kanhailal, I also did some melodrama (realist) play, doing the role of the heroine. I think I started 'acting' with those plays. My aunt taught me. It was the imitation of Hindi-film acting. That was popular on those days. (She demonstrates how a heroine reacts to the call of a hero—the coyness of the heroine.) Those acting styles were popularly known as 'realistic' or 'melodrama'. After I met Oja Kanhailal, I think it is in the process of making the play Tamnalai (1972) that we began to do what is called 'experimental theatre'. We started to experiment a new way of delivering dialogue. During those days, we didn't know the process of breathing and how to use breathing techniques in acting. We did Rashomon as well. We did not know how to deliver dialogue properly and rhythmically. Initially, we were speaking plainly. (She gave an example from Rashomon). Then, we tried to speak them rhythmically. We then started observing our breath. That way, we began to experiment with the dialogue delivery first. Initially, our career began with 'melodrama'. Later, when I met Kanhailal, we began to experiment with a desire to do new theatre, and we started searching for a new language of theatre. Thus, we began a new journey. We, then, gave attention to sorgi kanglon (breathing dynamics) and hakchanggi kanglon (body dynamics).

Rojio: During your childhood, when you played the role of Nimai Sanyas, did you feel any kind of bhakti or some kind of love or fear of God?

Sabitri: Yes, I felt some kind of emotions even though I was not totally involved in bhakti, since I was a child. Like calling 'Ima' in the performance, I was told to call with love. I was instructed, 'You are leaving her in the night of triyodarsi and going to become a monk. You are a young boy of 12. You are leaving your mother.' There were some emotions in what I was doing, because I was involved in the story. However, I could not feel any kind of bhakti, love, or fear of God. I think I was loved by everyone for my innocence.

(Excerpted with permission from HS Shivaprakash & Usham Rojio's 'Heisnam Sabitri'; published by Niyogi Books)