Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Feb 5: Jammuites had the privilege of witnessing the heritage production of Ramayana, a puppet dance show by Ranga-Sri Little Ballet Troupe from Bhopal that has not changed its script, set design and costumes since 1953, when it was first staged.
Staged as the third production of ongoing six-day long parallel festival of 18th edition of Bharat Rang Mahostsav-the annual festival of National School of Drama being held in collaboration with J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages-today’s play, an amalgamation of almost all versions of the Ramayana epic, was narrated through a puppet show.
Conceptualized 63 years ago by Shanti Vardhan, a close associate and disciple of Uday Shankar, the play has remained the same in terms of sets, costumes and the masks. The only change in play’s long artistic journey has been the cast.
The puppet show which has travelled abroad and had 600 shows in 56 countries, is an amalgam of cultural traditions from all across the country including Karnatic music, elements of Punjabi music and the Kajri-Chaiti style of U P.
Showcasing the best of the dramatic elements of folk theatre forms especially the manner of Rajasthani string puppet style, today’s production was a visual treat in terms of intricate footwork, stylized movements of actors, who wore square masks painted with faces, headgears, crowns which created the ‘illusion of wooden heavy headed puppets’.
The ballet is conceived as a puppet performance taking place in a village fair, with the bare minimum sets which are colorful nevertheless. One interesting aspect in the play was the replacing of the dancer enacting Sita with a doll in the abduction of Sita by Ravana.
The other highlight of today’s human puppet ballet which narrates Ramayana as a humane tale, devoid of all divinity and miracles, was the recorded but original background music and songs (which were once performed live by an orchestra). The music not only acted as a major device of continuous narration but also fittingly brought out different rasas-the emotive import of different episodes of Ramayana. With the result the audience enjoyed the experience of the all major emotions including Sringara, Adbhuta, Raudra, Veera, Karuna to Bhaynaka and Vibhastya.
Tomorrow, the drama Pigeon Show: A Play of Fools (English), directed by Ronlin Foreman will be performed by Individual Performance, a group from USA.
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