‘The puppet's shadows reflect our struggles’
Rajitha Pulavar started the first all-women tholpavakoothu puppetry troupe in Shornaur, Kerala
September 25, 2024 | Sangeeth Sankar
Bodo dancers and musicians take the stage
Watch the Subunsri and Bagurumba dances from Assam's Bodo community, with musicians on the siphung (long flute), kham (drum), and serja (violin) in attendance
September 12, 2024 | Himanshu Chutia Saikia
‘People respect me because I'm a theatre artiste’
A Therukkoothu performer speaks about the challenges faced by transgender artistes as they pursue their passion for this ancient theatre form in Tamil Nadu
June 22, 2024 | Poongodi Mathiarasu
Kerala’s puppeteers extend their art
To cater to the modern audience, tholpavakoothu puppetry has evolved a lot in the last two decades. A video documentary showcasing the transition of this art form through the years
January 25, 2024 | Sangeeth Sankar
Pili vesha folk art: dancing to the beat
This vigorous folk dance is performed by young people in coastal Karnataka. Organised and funded locally, they are integral to festivities held around Dussehra and Janmashtami
November 20, 2023 | Nithesh Mattu
The young gayans and bayans of Garamur
A religious folk performance practised in the satras of Majuli, Assam
November 18, 2023 | Prakash Bhuyan
In Chhattisgarh: Shaila nritya gets going
This post-harvest dance is performed only by men and is full of colour and the sound of multiple musical instruments
October 23, 2023 | Purusottam Thakur
Stories told in leather
Tholpavakoothu puppet-making is a rare skill that calls for working with buffalo and goat skin to create divine figures. This art is now also being done by women in the Malabar region
September 14, 2023 | Sangeeth Sankar
Portrait of an artist in Majuli
Ramesh Dutta is a painter, a sculptor, a mask-maker and player of many instruments. His talents are on display in the many theatre activities held on this island in the Brahmaputra river in Assam
October 6, 2023 | Prakash Bhuyan
Chadar Badni puppets at Santhal festival
Tapan Murmu is a young Santhal Adivasi farmer in Birbhum who also performs with puppets during the harvest festival – an art he worries has few takers among his generation
July 21, 2023 | Smita Khator
Tholpavakoothu puppetry is for everyone
A film about shadow puppet theatre in the villages of the Malabar region of Kerala
May 29, 2023 | Sangeeth Sankar
Raas Mahotsav and the satras of Majuli
This annual festival in Assam is a much-anticipated event with performances held across many venues. Migration and fading interest from the younger generation is making it difficult to find performers
May 19, 2023 | Prakash Bhuyan
Delhi’s kathputli artists: puppeteers in limbo
The kathputli artists of Delhi not only make puppets but also perform with them. The community has been struggling to regain momentum after they were moved out of their homes to a transit camp in 2017
April 27, 2023 | Himanshu Pargai
Ma Bonbibi’s pala gaan under threat
Bonbibi pala gaan is among the many musical dramas performed by locals in the Sundarbans. Falling incomes have pushed many to migrate, leading to a dearth of artists to enact this folk theatre
March 27, 2023 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Performing the snake goddess in Sundarbans
Farmers and labourers from Rajat Jubilee village in West Bengal come together to perform the Manasa pala gaan, a traditional musical play dedicated to the snake goddess – and keep rural theatre alive
October 18, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Nats at Singhu: nearing the end of their rope
Nat dancers move between their village in Chhattisgarh and the protest site at Delhi’s Singhu border, supporting the fight for farmers’ rights even as they themselves struggle to make a living
September 28, 2021 | Amir Malik
Trans artists in Madurai: bullied, isolated, broke
Harassed, shunned by family, losing livelihoods – trans folk in Tamil Nadu are seeing the worst of times
July 29, 2021 | Reporting: S. Senthalir | Photographs: M. Palani Kumar
In Madurai: the trauma of trans folk artists
While the pandemic has devastated many folk artists across Tamil Nadu, trans women performers have been among the worst hit – with barely any work or income, and no access to aid or state benefits
July 27, 2021 | Reporting: S. Senthalir | Photographs: M. Palani Kumar
Jodhpur puppeteers: silent stage, stories untold
In this video story, Premram Bhat and others speak of how their puppet shows, once popular in royal courts and at village events, are no longer in demand, and how the lockdowns have further hit their incomes
July 16, 2021 | Madhav Sharma
Quiet blows the kombu in Madurai
Kombu artistes in Tamil Nadu are struggling without any income from temple festivals and public events during the Covid-19 lockdowns. But their worries are more about the declining art
June 29, 2021 | M. Palani Kumar
Karagattam artistes: on a bad stage in Madurai
Tamil Nadu's Karagattam performers, who depend on the art form for a living, are struggling without work and income – and they're anxious that the pandemic will end their dream of educating their children
June 16, 2021 | M. Palani Kumar
‘Dancing like flowers in a garland’
At celebrations and commemorations during the winter months, young men and women from Chhattisgarh's Gond community travel together to perform the Hulki Mandri and Kolang dances, and sing Rela songs
March 30, 2021 | Purusottam Thakur
Whipping and worship on Mumbai's streets
Lakshman Katappa and his family, who belong to the Dhegu Megu SC community of Kodambal village in Karnataka and worship Goddess Mariyamma, dance and whip themselves to earn a living
March 10, 2021 | Aakanksha
Daivas, dance and divine intervention
In this centuries-old ritual event in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, impersonators tell stories of forgotten heroes from Dalitcommunities, solve disputes, and provide catharsis
July 30, 2020 | Nidhi Shetty
Terah Taali: the dance of the 13 cymbals
Nirmala Devi, her daughter Tara, and their all-women group are accomplished dancers, known for their signature Terah Taali sequence. Every evening, they ascend the stage in Udaipur's Bagore ki Haveli
September 20, 2019 | Urja
Charubala: joy and Jhumur, sorrow and song
In Senabana village of West Bengal's Purulia district, 65-year-old Charubala Kalindi, who has danced as a nachni for decades, still whips up a high-energy performance along with her rasik and their troupe
July 19, 2019 | Abhijit Chakraborty
Cycles, costumes, colour
October 23, 2018 | Purusottam Thakur
Performing Ramkatha in a changed Ayodhya
During the Dussehra month, the ragtag Ramkatha Singing Party dashes off from stage to stage, before returning to their day jobs, even as the retelling of the epic is engulfed by contemporary politics
October 19, 2018 | Joydip Mitra
Heckled, harassed, still dancing
For the female dancers in Mangala Bansode’s tamasha troupe in rural Maharashtra, work brings a steady income, but also entails sexual harassment, gruelling schedules, no privacy, and even childbirth on the move
August 29, 2018 | Vinaya Kurtkoti
A rich night of Dashavatar improvisations
In Dashavatar performances – a centuries-old theatre form of south Maharashtra and north Goa – plays of several hours, with only male actors, most of them farmers and labourers, keep audiences riveted till dawn
May 8, 2018 | Indrajit Khambe
Possessed by his art, a Bahurupi transforms
Raju Chowdhury of West Bengal's Bishaypur village is a storyteller, a feverish singer, an impersonator. His income is modest, the work is hard. This film features his stunning dance as the imaginary Tara sundori
March 23, 2018 | Sinchita Maji
Pulling the last of the strings
Puppeteers in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh are struggling to keep their art form alive – with its rich tradition and history – despite no help from the state and the takeover of ‘entertainment’ by television
March 21, 2018 | Rahul Maganti
The art and the agony of Subhash Shinde
PARI volunteer Sanket Jain aims to traverse 300 villages across India and, among other stories, produce this feature: a photograph of a rural scene or event and a sketch of that photograph. This is the fifth in the series on PARI.
February 19, 2018 | Sanket Jain
Tamasha: transformed but still travelling
Changes in technology, in audience tastes, shrinking performance spaces – have all impacted the tamasha. Troupe owners have mixed feelings – is the tamasha in danger or will Mangala Bansode's art form survive?
December 7, 2017 | Vinaya Kurtkoti and Shatakshi Gawade
‘Tamasha is like a jail that I want to stay in’
The tamasha remains popular in rural Maharashtra, where many see it as a more stable form of livelihood than agricultural labour, though profits are lean and the schedule is gruelling. One of the biggest troupes is run by Mangala Bansode, who received a National Award in the Creative Arts category yesterday, October 9
October 10, 2017 | Vinaya Kurtkoti and Shatakshi Gawade
Dancing to the dollu in Hesaraghatta
Young women on the outskirts of Bengaluru excel at a Kannada drum-and-dance form long thought to be a skill for burly men. In the video here, watch the group perform with extraordinary energy and rhythm
November 14, 2017 | Vishaka George
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
January 20, 2017 | Ankan Roy & Sagarika Basu
The dance of the false-legged horse
Poikkal Kuthirai dancers of Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, struggle to make a living from their ancient folk art form
October 13, 2016 | Aparna Karthikeyan
The Bhils of Alirajpur
Across the villages of Alirajpur, many of them now denuded and barren and with few livelihood options, the Bhils struggle to retain their farming and cultural practices
July 14, 2016 | Rohit Jain
Drums, bagpipes and Choliya dance
Choliya troupes in Uttarakhand integrate Scottish bagpipes into rural Indian music
April 2, 2016 | Yashashwini Raghunandan & Ekta Mittal
Pung
This traditional drum of Manipur's Meitei community is central to their culture, and to spectacular music and dance
December 31, 2015 | Anubha Bhonsle & Sunzu Bachaspatimayum
Storytelling the Kattaikkuttu way
Student artists in a unique school of education and theatre art in Tamil Nadu
November 13, 2015 | Namita Waikar
Hanging by a thread
Delhi’s old colony of puppeteers is in a state of flux, with threats to the land, housing and social structures
December 18, 2014 | Urvashi Sarkar
Kali dances - Karagattam
July 20, 2014 | Aparna Karthikeyan
Kali dances – Thappattam
Watch Kali Veerapadran – perhaps the only male dancer who has mastered the classical dance form Bharatanatyam, as well as three ancient Tamil folk dance forms – in a riveting performance
July 20, 2014 | Aparna Karthikeyan
Kali dances - Oyilaatam
July 20, 2014 | Aparna Karthikeyan
Kali: the dancer and his dreams
'I want to set up a dance school, I want to earn money, I want to look after my mother, I want to dance'
July 16, 2014 | Aparna Karthikeyan
