Ankan Roy & Sagarika Basu

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“We have to hold on to
Bahurupi to survive.  We don’t have any
agricultural land to be able to do farming,” says Raju Chowdhury. Bahurupi artists like him are performers who enact
multiple religious and mythological roles.
 
 This film
features the Chowdhury family – the parents and children are all Bahurupi – from
Bishaypur village in Birbhum district, who travel to various villages and towns
to perform a sequence of skits over several days.
 
 This once-popular folk art form is now vanishing
in rural West Bengal. Its practitioners have for generations earned modest
amounts from their performances. But because audiences now increasingly prefer
other forms of entertainment, the younger generations from Bahurupi families are
being forced out of the profession. Many, like the Chowdhurys, don’t have any other
means of earning a living.

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A version of the film featured here was made by Ankan Roy
(camera) and Sagarika Basu (editing) as
 
 
 their documentary project in 2015 at Visva-Bharati University,
Santiniketan.

Bahurupi: a family of many faces

बहुरूपी: कई चेहरों वाला चेहरा

பகுரூபி: பல முகங்களைக் கொண்ட குடும்பம்

ବହୁରୂପୀ : ଅନେକ ମୁହଁ ଥିବା ପରିବାର

এক বহুরূপী পরিবারের কথা

বহুৰূপীঃ ভিন্ন মুখাৰ এটা পৰিয়াল

بہوروپی: متعدد چہروں والی فیملی

Bishaypur

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Bahurupi: a family of many faces

Bahurupi artists in West Bengal easily metamorphose into different characters during a performance, but are finding it hard to change their work roles with changing times

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