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ARTS &
PHOTOS: NSD
CULTURE
Rich
Repertory
Silent Sentinel: The
imposing facade of
Bhawalpur House (NSD
campus); (Below) Learning
the art of stage makeup—
part of course curriculum.
National School of Drama has held
aloft India's ancient dramaturgy,
enriching it on the way.
I
t’s a 5,000-year-old ritual in India that still makes us “suspend
our disbelief” as it "plays" out live on the proscenium stage before
us. We laugh at their jokes, cry when they do and heave a sigh
of relief when their ordeal is over. Theatrical presentations have
exercised a fascination over human sensibilities like no other
visual medium. Natya as it is known in India, is a physical presentation of all art forms—dance, mime, acting, music, literature, art, architecture, fine arts, etc. Natya Shastra by Bharat Muni, the first written
tome on theatre anywhere in the world, sets out the tenets of theatre in
India. India has also produced many thespians and playwrights of high
calibre throughout the ages. Kalidas and Bhavabhuti, Bankim Chandra
Chatterjee, Jaishankar Prasad, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Prithviraj Kapoor,
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Ebrahim Alkazi, Habib Tanvir, Om Shivpuri,
Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad, Raj Babbar, Rohini Hattangadi, Anupam Kher, Irfan
Khan, Shah Rukh Khan…the list is endless.
Most of us recognise a few of these names,
the notable ones being Shah Rukh Khan,
Naseeruddin Shah, Raj Babbar, Anupam
Kher, Irfan Khan, Rohini Hattangadi and Om
Shivpuri. What’s also common to all of them is
that they are the alumni of one of the world’s
best theatre learning institution—National
School of Drama (NSD). The institution has