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Would you like a story telling session in your hi-rises’ lobby?

Gitanjali Chandrasekharan

Actor-story teller Akshay Gandhi discusses the reimagination of old Indian art forms, and competing with the small screen, ahead of Gaatha performance



When you study history from an academic perspective, you learn that India doesn’t have the habit of recording history. That so much of our past has been undocumented. Yet, as we move away from colonial perspectives, we realise that our history is often recorded in our art and rituals.

Bengaluru-based actor and story-teller Akshay Gandhi who will be in Mumbai this weekend for the Gaatha - Mumbai International Storytelling Festival, organised by the Mumbai Storytellers Society and Somaiya Vidyavihar University, shares how the Kaavad Katha, an art form from Rajasthan was in fact a way for family histories to be recorded.

 

“As in India, in Rajasthan too, there is a strong sense of acknowledging ancestors, especially in villages, and the tradition is reflected through story telling,” says Gandhi. In the ritual, the kaavadiya—who tells the story using the kaavad a portable wooden shrine or a story box—is invited by a family to tell stories. The ritual starts with a puja, after which the kaavadiya tells various stories. Some mythology, some stories about local gods and goddesses, and also of local heroes and warriors. “If there are family members who have done something great in the past or who the family wants to remember for some reason, they will tell the story of their life and it’s the tradition,” he adds.

In many ways, the kaavadiya was the family historian.

Every few families, Gandhi shares, would have their personal kaavadiya whose main job was to share and pass on the family history from generation to generation. They’d know their names, where they came from etc.

The stories had not just entertainment value perhaps but also that of record-keeping. With time, recording-keeping by the local government and migration to cities and other states, plus cellphones and photos, rendered the kaavadiyas without purpose.

Yet, the art form can surely live on?


Gandhi, while emphasising that he is not a kaavadiya, says he has been inspired by kaavad from an arts perspective.

“I write my content in my own way. The idea is to investigate the art form much more critically. Yet, the material is deeply mythological and philosophical in nature.”

He gives the example of one story: Sun and Moon get into an argument over a small incident and leave the sky in a huff. This leaves the Earth in darkness and slowly life gets destroyed here. “This becomes and impulse for the rest of the story. What happens in the darkness?” says Gandhi.

“One can perform a completely modern play in Kuriyattam. It may not reach the same level, but the point is that the art form should be able to do things,” he adds.

 

His performance this weekend is more about the philosoiphical quest he has been on with his art. Along with other story tellers, he will stage a performance demonstration, speaking to the audience about tradition, about the stories, what are learning points… to get back into performance and then go back to the audience.

 

Gandhi, who collaborates with artist Rohit Bhasi, hasn’t done a kaavad katha performance in two years. They have been focusing on researching and reflecting on engaging with tradition.

 

But can tradition compete with the small screen?

Gandhi finds the relevance of the stage even more important today.

 


“We are consuming digital content and the story is part of it, it’s not the whole experience. We need the stage because we are losing the human connect most of the time. Watching a play or listing to a story teller activates our faculties, our senses, and we need that for better well being,” he says.

 

Still, a screen is available anywhere. The stage needs you to beat traffic.

 

“Yes, we need to localise theatre, performances. We are at a point when we are questioning what our role is as artistes, and one role we have is to enable local performances, in housing societies and apartment blocks. People still want to see a performance, but in making the stage ‘elite’ we are distancing the people. There should be apartment group shows, story-telling shows. People want to engage with it and artistes should go in that space,” he adds.

 

A play or a story telling session in your colony for the festive season. Would you drop Netflix for a bit and go?

  Gitanjali Chandrasekharan is the founder of Talered, content editor at Agents of Ishq, ex-Editor Sunday mid-day

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