Identifying Communicative Challenges in a Radio Drama: A Case Study

Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Identifying Communicative Challenges in a Radio Drama :
A Case Study of AIR’s Hawa Mahal Production
Udaipurki Train
By
Aparna singh &Dr Sudhir N. Singh

The skit Udaipur Ki Train was “recorded in the
presence of around 4000 audiences at town hall
Udaipur in 1997 during the Skit Festival organized by
All India Radio, Udaipur and conducted by Mahendra
Modi. The recording was sent to Vividh Bharati and it
broke all the records of Hawa Mahal programme.” [1]
Udaipurki Train: The skit
Source : http://orasev.gq/830117-udaipur-ki-train-drama-script.htm/
Browsed as on june13, 2019. (Web)

Introduction : Objectives/ Approaches
(A) The Literary Approach
The present paper tries to analyze the various
communicative issues and challenges any radio dramatic
production would have to counter in order to reach the
audience effectively as the regular drama through a popular
Radio skit Udaipur Ki Train broadcasted by AIR’s Vividh
Bharti’s program Hawa Mahal during 90s.

Introduction…
(B) Perspective Professional Implications
I. The present paper also focuses on exploiting the plot on
professional frontier by excavating a few issues and concerns
which may possibly be applied for professional grooming of
Soft Skills, Communication Skills aspirants.
II. Furthermore, this study attempts to highlight the facts that
makes Udaipur Ki Train a fit material for professional classroom
discourse.

This study focuses on the following communicative challenges:
Communicative Challenges
Structural challenges Micro-suggestive
challenges

A) Structural challenges

Literature and Drama
• Literature, as the mirror of society majorly reflects the societal
changes and the pulse of the human developmental stages.
• May it be in terms of physical and organic; or intellectual,
behavioural and psychological; or even the technological stages of
human advancements.
• Drama, being one of the oldest and the most celebrated literary
genre since classical age has the credit of presenting, preserving and
exhibiting the core concerns and the conflicts of human life in the
most artistic panoramic sketch by using nonverbal-verbal-vocal-
visual-audio mechanism in a highly coherent and synchronized
manner.

 The dependency of a staged-play heavily rests on non-
verbal and visual presentation than the verbal
presentation as with use of less words but more actions
and different gestures a deeper sense of understanding
could be evoked and the spectator’s mind gets thoroughly
sensitized towards the issues raised in the drama.
Dependency on Visuals andNonverbals

 Less words but more action makes a play artistically
successful and articulates the theme at the louder note.
 Eliot’s theory of Objective Co-relative where actions are
visible in form of a chain of events rather being produced
verbally justifies the ‘less use of words but more action’.
Dependency on Visuals andNonverbals…

Dependency on Visuals andNonverbals…
For Objective Corelative Eliot recommends:
“The only was expressing emotion in the form of art is by
finding an “objective corelative”; in other words, a set of
objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the
formula of that particular emotion; such that when the
external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience,
are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.” [2]
Source : Eliot, T.S. Hamlet and His Failures, the sacred woods and Major Early Essays, 1998.

Drama andradioDrama
 A play is a visual demonstration of certain actions accompanied
by vocal aids.
 A play staged has certain stage effect.
 But a play at radio platform has no visual and stage effect so the
radio drama is a drama without some essentials of a regular
drama.
 So there are some challenges that radio drama has to cope-up
with for successful communication with its targeted audience.

Regional RadioDrama
 A play having a regional set up that comprises of local language, tone
and native flavors is termed as regional drama and also commonly
known as folk theatre or drama.
 The present skit having a regional setup and background targets the
global theme of modern youth’s professional challenges using the
protagonist as a Generation-Z role model who is impatient and
restless for success.
 To counter the absence of stage and folk setting, the accent is
modulated with high tone, loudness in volume and stressed rate of
speech in dialogue delivery.

The phrases like;
 Are O Baba ji….Are o bhaiiye kidhar chal diye…!!!
 Aah..Ab theek hai
represents the nativity of the language and particular colors of
the region.
Whereas the splintered sentences, repetition, undue pauses
and stammering of the new recruited during the conversation
with the senior officer as;
 Woo Sir…Wooo baat ye hai ki…!!!
Suggest the mental instability and lacking of softs skills of the person.

 The continuous background noise and the railways specific
sound as;
Chai…. Chai lo chai…
 and the sound of trains, engine, passengers and jumbled
voices of vendors, beggars, casual people passing time at
platform provides the visual imagery of the setting and
indicates it to be a railway station without verbalizing it.

b) MICRO-SUGGESTIVE challenges

 The comic fabric of the radio drama Udaipur Ki Train and its
hilarious environment subtly comments on the present-day
society by highlighting the first day of a railway worker posted
at the inquiry counter.
 The plot has a close-knit undercurrent of a micro-suggestive
professional irony seamlessly stitched underneath of its sleeve.
 The gentleman in the play lacks the exposure of the nuances of
the life at railway station in general and exposure of
announcement desk in particular. This half-ripen immaturity of
the protagonist turns disastrous and consequently he foolishly
converts his first day at office into his last working day.

Micro-suggestive challenges
communicationskillsbased Soft-skillsbased

Communication Skills Based:
After analysing the protagonist’s predicament on his first day
at work, it’s not a tough job for any communication expert to
infer the root causes leading to his absolute breakdown.
 Job-skills compromise can compel to job compromise
itself.
 Knowing what/when “NOT TO SPEAK” is probably more
important than knowing what/when “TO SPEAK”.
 Udaipur Ki Train inherently narrativizes a plot of
communication failure with exceptional skills of
communication.

Soft Skills Based:
Soft Skills are prerequisite skills leading to an individual’s success. As
umbrella term Soft Skills consist a fairly long list of constituent skills for
leading an aspirant to the path of excellence.
 Initiating right from the punctuality issues and time management
concerns, communicative breakdowns leading loss of composure, then
panic and finally situational disaster to the ultimately loss of employment,
Udaipur Ki Train offers typical examples suitable for sample analysis.
 Many a times while acquiring education people either ignore or
compromise on the frontiers of “on-job training” and their practical
implications which consequently yield otherwise results. While facing
practical plight they ignore basics of human interpersonal interactions and
destined to face fatal failures.

The micro suggestions of the undercurrent of the theme unfold
many communicative issues to be discussed in detail. A few
predominant undercurrents are mentioned below;
 Need of Interpersonal communication skills
 Managing time and punctuality
 Managing Stress
 Adjustment in Uncomfortable Working Situations
 Adaptability to New Work Environment and Fishy Situations
 Bridging-up Theoretical Knowledge and Instantly Cropped-up
Work Condition
 Managing Composures at Work Place

 Handling Real-life situation
 Improper Responses Resulting into Chaos
 Filling the gap between getting a job and retaining the same
 Easily Giving-up
 Withdrawal in Hardships
 Messing-up
 Loosing Job in a Single Sitting
 Surrender and Quitting & Last but not the least
 Highlighting the Industry-Academia Gap
(viz. The Ever-increasing Gulf Between Skill-Sets that Industries
Require, and the Kind of Training that Academia Offer)

Conclusion
 Structurally, the play has a very sound and hilarious comic plot.
 The stage-direction of the play has been cautious enough to bridge-
up the gap of the visual lacking.
 The production makes it a grand success by judicious use of silence,
para-linguistics and musical fillers. Nowhere the audience gets the
effects of boredom, rather it is highly engaging.
 Skit-listeners eagerly engross and remain attentively curious for
what-next!
 The closer of the skit unveils the ultimate farcical climax. These have
been some key factors obviously contributing to the grand success
of Udaipur Ki Train.

Conclusion…
 Micro-suggestive undercurrents open manifold scopes for the
study of Communication Skills & Soft Skills.
 The above said fact opens new vistas of study for professional
treatment of the play a befitting classroom discourse.
 The protagonist is a professional (that too a communication
professional) and reporting more than two and half hours late
to the office on his very first day of joining can definitely be
debated as example of poor professionalism and the worst
case of time management and poor display of punctuality.

Conclusion…
 Protagonist behaves as situational puppet instead having
command and control over them. He looses temper
frequently, again a pathetic display of Soft Skills adding
misery to his plight.
 Above points ensures a firm entry of Udaipur Ki Train into
professional arena.

1. http://orasev.gq/830117-udaipur-ki-train-drama-script.htm/
2. https://www.vividhbharti.org/hawa-mahal/udaipur-ki-train/
3. Eliot, T.S. Hamlet and His Failures, The Sacred Woods and
Major Early Essays, Dover Publications INC., 1998, p.58.
(Print)
References:

By
Aparnasingh
&
Dr Sudhir N. Singh

Identifying Communicative Challenges in a Radio Drama: A Case Study

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