Undeniably, these laments are valid. Haphazard policies, combined with an acute lack of awareness have resulted in dilution and dissipation of energy in the Indian theatre movement. On an even more serious note, there is a complete absence of vision at various levels.

Does it mean that after the stalwarts, there has been no meaningful play-writing in post-Independence India? No. That should not be the inference. Satish Alekar’s Begum Barve has a remarkable sweep and complexity. (Oddly, nothing of substance has come from this talented playwright subsequently.) Girish Karnad continues to write very good plays. His latest, Broken Images, has an odd, intriguing intensity about it. In this one-actor play, the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ interact to create levels of tension rarely experienced in a theatre hall. Recently I saw young Asif Hyder’s magnificent play Kafka, a wholly indigenous effort of the NSD Repertory Company.

So, beautiful things are happening. The problem is, efforts such as these are few and far between and the overall situation remains unsatisfactory.

The flip side of globalisation, which has profound cultural implications, is that it invariably has a dilapidating influence on indigenous cultures. The rich regional cultures, in both tangible and intangible forms, have unfortunately become a victim. Many regional languages of India have their own vibrancy and richness, which remains completely unutilised in weaving a unique national cultural fabric due to lack of creative interaction, which incidentally was the hallmark of the theatre of the sixties. Plays from regional languages were quickly translated in many others.

... contd.