FOLK THEATRE - NAUTANKI

Presented by:
Shreya Bangard
Fashion Communication - 7
 IN THIS PRESENTATIOn

ABOUT ORIGIN POPULARITY DECLINE CURRENT STATUS

Associated places Earliest signs/ forms When and where Causes and reasons Present condiAon of
of the theatre form did it became of decline of the the art form
Popular Nautankis popular? theatre format
Dierent schools of Reasons of why is it
CharacterisAcs of the art Who made it currently like that?
the folk theatre popular?

Typical setup
 A form of folk theatre, associated with UMar Pradesh
Based on songs and dances of classical ragas which was considered a high-class entertainment
in the Mughal period
Popular centers of this tradiAonal theatre form are Kanpur, Lucknow and Haathras
Meters used in the verses are; Doha, Chaubola, Chhappai, Behar-e-tabeel
There was a Ame when only men acted in Nautanki but nowadays, women have also started
taking part in the performances.
Among those remembered with reverence is Gulab Bai of Kanpur, gave a new dimension to this
old theatre form

ABOUT
CHARACTERISTICS OF NAUTANKI FOLK THEATRE
Humorous
Dominated by music and dance; less of acAng
Rich musical composiAons
Entertaining storylines; romanAc tales, mythologies,
biographies of local heros
Nagara marks the beginning of the play
Everything is coordinated to the beats of the Nagara
Nakkara is played at the end od every phase; serves for
dramaAc purposes
EmoAonal rendering is sacriced in order to reach
higher notes
Involve a lot of community parAcipaAon from audiences
Proscenium type stage; Painted roller curtains
Roof/ pandal over the head of singers to resound their
voices Nagara
 The pleasure of Nautanki lies in the intense melodic exchanges between two or three
performers; a chorus is also used someAmes.
TradiAonal Nautankis usually start late at night, oZen around 10 p.m. or so, and go all night
unAl sunrise the next morning (for a total of 8-10 hours in duraAon).
There is no intermission in Nautanki performances.
Nautanki performances take place in open areas available or in and around villages that can
accommodate hundreds or thousands of people.
Some popular tradiAonal Nautankis are Syah-Posh (Pak Mohabbat), Sultana Daku, Indal Haran,
Amar Singh Rathore, Bhakt Puranmal, and Harischandra-TaramaA.
Some popular contemporary Nautankis are Mission Suhani, Subah ka Bhoola, Behkaani and
Muskaani, and BeA ka Byah (all of these contemporary Nautankis are wriMen by Pandit Ram
Dayal Sharma).
SETUP OF A TYPICAL NAUTANKI PERFORMANCE
A Nautanki stage is elevated above the ground and
is made up of wooden cots. Other Ames a
chabutara in front of a house can serve as stage.
The stage is open on three sides. There is a
backdrop on the fourth side, usually made of a
colorful cloth.
Behind the stage is a temporary enclosure that
serves as a make-up/changing room.
Audiences sit on all the three sides of the stage.
Usually children sit immediately near the stage.
Male adults sit behind them. If the performance is
overowing, youngsters oZen climb the
surrounding trees to get a birds-eye view. Women
audiences sit together, physically separate from
their male counterparts.
SETUP OF A TYPICAL NAUTANKI PERFORMANCE
On the stage, musicians and percussionists sit on
one side and actor-singers occupy the center-
stage.
Harmonium, Nakkara, and Dholak are the main
musical instruments that are used in Nautanki
performances. SomeAmes a clarinet might be
employed.
There is oZen a person in the back corner of the
stage who acts as a prompter, helping
performers to remember the next line of the
piece they are singing.
Nautanki scenes are wriMen in a way that there
are usually only 2-3 performers on the stage at
one Ame.
 MenAoned in Abul Fazals Ain-i-Akbari. Akbar himself was a great caMle drummer and he used
this skill for Swaang, as Nautanki was called in those days.
Naurang-e-ishq, wriMen in 1685 by the famous Rajasthan writer Maulana Abdul Ghanimat, also
menAons Nautanki.
Rahasya Manzil in Lucknow sAll bears tesAmony to the Nautankis that were performed there,
sponsored by the Nawab.
In the late 19th century, Hathras and Mathura in western UMar Pradesh, and Kanpur and
Lucknow in central UMar Pradesh, became the two biggest centers of Nautanki performance
and teaching. Both schools dier from each other with respect to their performaAve form and
technique.

ORIGIN
 HATHRASI SCHOOL KANPURI SCHOOL
Developed rst Performances by its arAsts in central UMar Pradesh
sAmulated the development of this school
Emphasizes singing more and is operaAc in form Centers itself more on prose-lled dialogues mixed with
singing
Borrowed many elements of prose dialogue delivery from
Parsi Theater and mixed them with the Hathrasi singing to
come up with its new style of performance
Singing style is somewhat slow-paced compared to Singing style is somewhat fast-paced compared to the
the Kanpuri School. Hathrasi School.

 In pre-Independence India, Nautanki was used to spread messages of patrioAsm.
Between 1924 and 1936, it was banned in Allahabad.
Jawaharlal Nehru, who was deeply interested in the theatre form, met Ramdas Tripathi, a well-
known Nautanki director from Allahabad, during one of his sAnts in jail. They became friends,
and Nehru ji started calling upon folk theatre directors/arAstes to spread the message of
naAonalism.
Nautanki groups also helped in collecAng audiences when naAonalist leaders delivered
speeches at public meeAngs.
During colonial Ames, these narraAves had a specic funcAon. People idenAed themselves
with the Nautanki heros and imagined themselves ghAng against the colonial authority and
oppressive elements through them.

POPULARITY
 Nautanki reached the pinnacle of its glory in
the early 20th century when numerous
Nautanki performing troupes, known as
mandalis (groups) and akharas (wrestling
arenas) came into existence.
Nautanki mandalis were called akharas due
to the prevalence of the parAcular style of
singing in Nautanki that required a lot of
physical power.
The Nautankis staged by these mandalis or
akharas became the main source of
entertainment in the small towns and
villages of northern India, and remained as
such unAl television and VCRs began to
make inroads in the early 1990s.
 Riding on its popularity, Nautanki progressed both in terms of form as well as content, and its
stage became bigger and more professional.
Nautanki companies like Natharam's mandali, catching the cue from big Parsi theater troupes
such as Alfred Theater Company, started to present their performances outside the core region
of their audience. Some performances occurred as far as Myanmar.
Storylines of Nautanki ranged from mythology and folklore to tales of contemporary heroes.
 Like many other folk forms of India, Nautanki's status has been badly aected by the apathy of
the poliAcal leadership, and the aotude of looking down upon indigenous Indian arAsAc
tradiAons by powerful urban-based elites suering from a post-colonial hangover.
People now think of Nautanki as a play with teasing songs bordering on over simplicity. The
very word nautanki is now used in a derogatory sense, implying a piece of fuAle play-acAng to
inuence someone. The original style of Nautanki lacked frivolity, however.
Nautankis used to take their themes from mythology or history which gradually, led to a
thinning of interest among both the arAsts and the audiences because,
(a) The scripts remained unchanged over several centuries and people were bored with
aaaaaawatching the same Nautanki repeatedly.
(b) ArAsts wouldnt come on rehearsals because they had crammed the dialogues over the
aaaaaayears.
From there actually began the fall of the Nautanki.

DECLINE
 At present, Nautanki is experiencing a dialecAcal tension. On one hand, it sAll holds an
important place in people's collecAve imaginaAon, and on the other, it is struggling to deal with
changing audience aspiraAons, molded by cinema and television.
Also, Nautanki has failed to contemporize the subject maMer of its script. Times have changed
and the context of these old Nautankis is perhaps not as relevant for today's audiences.
Audiences today want to watch Nautankis that mirror and discuss their own realiAes, rather
than those which depict narraAves from a remote past.
People prefer to listen to stories woven around current issues that aect them; like, the ill-
eects of outdated social tradiAons like dowry, side eects of agricultural pesAcides,
unemployment and poverty, and women's empowerment.

CURRENT STATUS
 What people have failed to realize is that folk or popular arts cannot be preserved. They are
ever owing, ever changing expressions of people, reecAng their contemporary realiAes.
What can be done is to provide these folk forms with equal opportuniAes in relaAon to their
urban counterparts, giving them opportuniAes to express contemporary realiAes.
In post-colonial India, folk forms have either been seen as art forms incapable of intellectual
expression, or they have been given a rare species status. In both scenarios, community folk
forms like Nautanki have been neglected by those who control socio-economic and cultural
capital.
Unfortunately, Nautanki arAsts and others associated with these forms either do not have
enough resources or educaAonal capital to make a case for their art, or are so caught up in their
struggle for survival that they have Ame for liMle else.
When a popular folk form stops fullling its func6on, it ceases to be a popular form. This is a real
danger that Nautanki is facing in present-day India. So Nautanki has to keep up with the 6mes.
THANK YOU