RADIO DRAMA I:Stage Dramas, Early Radio Dramas, Ethics, Classification

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Introduction to Broadcasting MCM411

LESSON 14

RADIODRAMA I

Drama in literature is as old as mostother story-telling formslike novels and shortstories are;

whenShakespeare wrote Romeo andJuliet and enthralled theaudience to pave the wayfor

classicalwritings in this form, he was not the pioneer of this genre of literature.Drama; writing

story in dialogue form, wasalready existing, thoughlittle known. Then cameothers, felt the

livelinessand vibrancy in this form of communication and worked to further this part of

literature.

Oneprime reason for thepopularity of stage hasalways been the dramasexpressed with all

vitalityand ferocity throughcharacters some timesdominating and at otherssubduing. When

radiowas introduced in the start of last century, stagedramas had already come to age and

wereone top entertainment forthe common people. Radiodramas actually picked thethread

fromtheaters and gave it a dimension never imaginedeven by the top playwrightsbefore. In

thesubcontinent, the theatersechoed plays of Agha Hasharkashmiri who had a specialknack

in dialogue writing. SyedImtiaz Ali Taj, andKrishn Chandr were notmuch behind. In factthere

were a number of writers engaged in drama writing.

It immediately drew attentionwhen radio came intobeing. Apart from musicand

announcements/news, radio stations startedmaking dramas to build up their audience. But

radioinherited drama from stageand for years it was a replica of stage dramas,which was

heard on radios. We must see howthe stage drama wasbefore the broadcasting mode of

communication.

StageDramas

It was 1840 when a merchant F Cowasjee in Bombay desired to open a theatre. He was

allowed to do so in 1846 when alongwith him Jamshedjee andjeejabhoy founded

subcontinent'sfirst theatre named GrandRoad Theatre. For long it staged English plays. In

1853Parsee Natak Mandli cameinto being and gotpopularity for staging over a 1000 shows

of a play, uttejak mandli, a satire, comic and reflection on various aspects of sociallife. It also

worked as a breakthrough to bring thedrama to middleclasses.

DadabhaiSorabji Patel staged a musical urdu play earlylast century - Benazir babremunir.

ButIndrasabah by Agha HasanAmanat Ali at the darbar of oudh Lacnow in 1885 was a

landmarksuccess already.

Fromtranslations stage broughtdrama to vernacular- hindi,urdu, Bengali andGujarati.

It flourished more in Bombay.Agha hashr Kashmir's Kashmir ki kali and yahudi ki larki,and

thenrustom o suhraab were topranking stage performances.Performers usually spokeloudly

to enable back-seaters to listendialogues. Top playwrights anddirectors includedpremchand,

raambabu saksena, saadat hasanminto, krishn chandr, ahmedshah bokhari andN.M.

Rashid.The dialogues wereinterwoven with songs,verses, and dances.

EarlyRadio Dramas

Thesame set off playwrightalso wrote plays forradio when it came to India in 1926. First in

Bombayand then in Lahore,Peshawar, Delhi and afterpartition to Karachi, Rawalpindiand

Hyderabad.Early days radio dramaswere loud and morelike stage plays. Thencame people

likeRafi Peerzada and Z A Bokhari who worked day in and day out to convertstage plays look

radioplays.

Introduction to Broadcasting MCM411

Newwriting techniques anddialogue delivery withimmense voice control in speech were

introduced. By the time secondgeneration of writers cameAgha Nasir, Kamal AhmedRizvi,

AshfaaqAhmed, radio had come to age in Pakistan. Hamidmian kay haan, andlegend

TalqeenShah reverberated in the airs of subcontinent notfor weeks or months butdecades.

In between so much experimentswere carried out on dramasthat it has become a story in

itself.

Ethics

No immoral dialogue. No humiliation of any segment of society. No blasphemous storieseven

notagainst government policies.But to create harmony andexpose hypocrisy.

Classification

Verysoon it was realized thatevery drama did notattract every one. In themeantime

audienceanalysis approach wasintroduced and on the basis of research, listenerswere

categorized.Now there were separatedramas for children,military personals, farmersand

ruralpeople, urban aristocraticclass and one as forgeneral public. In anotherway radio

dramaswere classified as historical,translations, romantic (mostlistened category),war-time,

and on social life mainlyshowing bad charactersgetting defeated.

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