A curtain falls
On 23 July 2025, the Indian theater lost one of its most silent and lighting appearances. Ratan Thiam, playwright, director, poet, painter and stage of stage philosophy, are no longer among us. This is not just the death of a creator. This is the end of an era. His departure is like the extinction of such aesthetics and morality, which considered the stage as a place of practice.
Famous writer Vater Vyomesh Shukla says, ‘If the modern Indian theater is a tapobhoomi, Ratan Theiam was his meditation sage. Watching his play meant, descending within himself, entering the womb of his silence.’
The light that woke up from the infal
Born on 20 January 1948 in Imphal, Manipur, Ratan Thiam graduated from the National School of Natya in 1974. Abraham Alkazi was his guru. After education, when most of the color workers were eager to settle in Delhi or Mumbai, Tiam Imphal returned and established the Chorus Repertary Theater in 1976.
It was not just an institution. He was a cultural ashram. Where artists would be produced in the form of Integral Sadhana. The artists would not only be an actor, but also musicians, philosophers and painters. In fact, this place was a laboratory of self -consciousness and collective discipline away from cities.
Forum: A silent pilgrimage
Ratan Thiam’s theater was neither a dialogue, nor full of visual miracles. His plays would have a deep use of silence, speed, light, masks and symbols. His composition process was inspired by Indian Natyashastra, Manipuri Maetayi tradition and ancient rituals.
The actor did not act on his stage, he was ‘manifested’, like a spiritual appearance. The stage would have been published carefully, not by light. Symbolism, physical discipline and intense silence, convert their plays into visual poetry.
Not a dramatic work, a yajna
His play ‘Chakravyuh’ (1984) was based on the Mahabharata, but his resonance was heard in contemporary wars and his moral crises. The play was honored with the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival and brought Manipur to the international theater map.
In plays like ‘Andha Yuga’, ‘North Priyadarshi’, ‘Ritusahar’, ‘Nine Hills One Valley’, Ratan Thiam created myth, environment, morality and contemporary conflicts together. In his staging, the seasons would become the states of the soul, the war would become a copy of the blindness of the soul.
He also molded European plays like, Antigony, Baika, Macbeth etc. in Manipuri contexts and gave them a new linguistic and cultural body.
Interrelation of art and morality
Ratan Thiam’s politics was not in slogans – he was in his silence, was opposed to him, his returned Padma Shri. When violence spread in Manipur, he responded to politics from culture. He repeatedly appealed to religious and social leadership to take initiative for peace.
Culture for him was not just a celebration, but a social responsibility. Diversity was not an abstract concept for them, but a vibrant reality, which was necessary to protect.
Honor and simplicity
The list of honors received by Ratan Thiam is long, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987), Padma Shri (1989), Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (2012), Kalidas Samman, Meta Lifetime Achievement Award, Bhupen Hazarika Award, Bharat Muni Samman, and D.Lit from Assam University.
From 2013 to 2017, he was the President of the National Theater School. Under his leadership, the cultural diversity of the North-East got a new identity. He advocated decentralization of theater and made the stage a real mirror of Indian plurality.
Light remains
Ratan Thiam was not the author of the announcements. He wrote silence in plays, motion to stability, and kneaded the symbols with emotions. His theater was not emotional, but emotional. His compositions showed the way in the dark like a burning torch, or as an invisible wind flowing in the bamboo clump.
Recurrence of their plays is not possible, only their soul will remain, among the directors that prefer depth, in students who learn practice before acting.
A final greetings
The departure of Ratan Thiam is the departure of a cultural sage. He was among the rare artists for whom theater was the practice of the soul, not the scene. Today, when the predominance of speed, noise and skill on stage, Ratan Thiam reminds of the solitude where silence is also dialogue.
Their departure is not only a family, an institution, or a state damage. It is a national cultural emptiness. But his platform, his resolve and his vision, are still alive within us.
(Ashutosh Kumar Thakur, Bangalore -based Sahityalochak and Curator. He can be contacted: ashutoshbthakur@gmail.com)
