Schoolchildren
get introduced to Japan’s Kamishibai and Kerala’s Tholpavakuthu
New Delhi, Nov
11:
Stories from faraway lands like Japan, China and Mongolia as well as from
inside India were the focus of a bunch of storytellers who took turns to take
children and adults alike on imaginary trips, they are unlikely to forget
anytime soon.
 |
| A performer from Japan's Spice Arthur 702 enact Kamishibai , a traditional Japanese theatre at Kathakar which began today at IGNCA in New Delhi. The event brings together storytellers from India and abroad |
The
sixth edition of the Kathakar - International Storytellers Festival, a
three-day event which began at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
(IGNCA) here, opened with a narrative on the life of Pandit Deen Dayal
Upadhyaha, concentrating on his actions as a child.
On
day one, storytellers from Japan used traditional Kamishibai ‘paper theatre’,
to narrate popular Japanese tales to an audience of schoolchildren.
Dressed
in their country’s native costumes — Yukata,
a traditional Japanese summer dress; kimonos; and Hakama, a kimono in a trouser style — the Spice Arthur 702 troupe
regaled the audience with oral storytelling accompanied with hundreds of
picture book images and music.
Three
performers took to the stage to enact the 12th century theatre style from Japan,
with the narrator recreating stories of Issun Samurai- an old Japanese
fairy tale. A dash of sci-fi was added to the mix with a narration of a Star
Wars saga, using Japanese music and singing. They rounded off their performance
with the story of Hikkyaku Hana-chan,
featuring a Japanese Maharajah.
 |
| A performer from Japan's Spice Arthur 702 enact Kamishibai, a traditional Japanese theatre at Kathakar which began today at IGNCA in New Delhi. The event brings together storytellers from India and abroad |
Flying
pictures, loud and realistic sounds, and music and singing accompanied the
Japanese performance.
“I
use a combination of Manga (comics) with pastel crayons to create the images
that go into the story. Often it takes me more than a month to create 200
images for one story,” said Pyonky, the artist who handles the paper during the
show. A narrator narrates the story using voice effects, while Pyonky manages
the paper and a musician provides the music.
A
shadow puppetry troupe from Kerala enacted a portion of the Kamba Ramayana
via the ritualistic art form of ‘Tholpavakuthu’
“Although
we have performed in Delhi before, this is the first time were did a daytime
perfomance. Usually the tholpavakutthu
is done using leather puppets which cast shadows from behind a dark background
screen,” said K Vishwanatha Pulavar of the Tholpavakuthu Sangam.
Sarah
Rundle, a professional storyteller from the UK used no props and relied on her
voice and animated gestures to narrate stories from the Silk Route. Those
included the story about a “boy who drew cats” and another one from China about
a woman and her pig, where she got the audience to sing along with her.
“I
absolutely love to tell stories. This is the second time I am performing at
Kathakar. Children are the same everywhere; give them a good story and they are
hooked,” said Sarah.
Kathakar
runs for three days in Delhi before moving on to Mumbai and Bengaluru.
 |
| Children listen raptly to a performance at Kathakar |
“With
every edition, the festival is getting better. This is the first time we are
featuring a Japanese group. When it began the idea was to showcase the
traditions of storytelling in all cultures and civilisations including
contemporary stories. India is also known as a land of stories and what better
than to showcase its diverse stories,” IGNCA Programme Director Smt Mangalam
Swaminathan said.
She
said this year the festival, a collaboration with the NGO Nivesh, is being
expanded to Bengaluru for the first time.
Highlights
of the festival over the next two days include a ‘Qissebazi’ by poet-actor
Danish Husain from Mumbai and Jatak Katha age-old folk tales from
Rajasthan by Delhi-based contemporary storyteller Jaishree Sethi. There is
a panel discussion on the ‘Contemporising Stories’ on Saturday.
Additional
performers at Kathakar include Namesh Bhardwaj, Shaarvari Somayagi and the
students of Swamy Vivekananda Education Society from India, Gilles Abbot, from
UK whose work is rooted in Viking and Celtic myth and Katy Cawkwell also from
the UK whose work has included appearances at Royal Opera House and the British
Museum beside international festivals.
While
morning sessions are exclusively marked for school students and need to be
pre-booked, those in the evening are open to the public. Entry is
free and seating is on a first-come- first-served basis.
"We
usually hold festivals all across the country where we invite authors from
various countries to come to India. Nowadays children rarely live with their
grandparents and such oral storytelling is on the decline. We hope that
children get to listen to a range of stories across different cultures. It is
an attempt to open the world and imagination to the children especially the
underprivileged,” said Prarthana Bisht from Ghummakkad Narain, one of the
organisers of the festival.
Misako
Futsuki, Director of Arts & Cultural Exchange, The Japan Foundation, adds,
“We are very happy to invite Spice Arthur since we hardly have a chance to
invite a storytelling group from Japan. We have traditional storytelling in
Japan, although it's disappearing in this fast changing world. Spice Arthur is
trying to make it more lively and exciting with their original interesting way
of storytelling. It's rapid, rhythmical and entertaining with interesting
stories. I'm sure, people in India will love them!”
Another
first is the festival’s partnership with BookASmile who are the Supporting
Partners for the festival. Farzana Cama Balpande, Head- BookASmile said,
“Listening to stories is such an integral part of childhood. In the days before
screen media overtook our imaginations, we depended on stories narrated by our
parents, grandparents or relatives. This indigenous art gave depth and
dimension to our thoughts as we grew up. BookASmile is delighted to support
Kathakar in their endeavour to take enriching stories to children across Delhi,
Bangalore and Mumbai.”
 |
| a traditional shadow puppetry group from Kerala |
Storyteller
Katy Cawkwell said, "For me, it's a great opportunity to visit India for
the first time and share my stories more widely. New audiences always mean I
find something new in the material myself and I am curious to find out what
will emerge. I am also excited about coming to the Kathakar festival and
hearing storytellers from other countries: international festivals are often
rich sources of inspiration for my own work." "This is my first
time at Kathakar, but I have heard from other UK storytellers how the audiences
are much more enthusiastic participants in the story, so I have chosen stories
where there is an element of this,” she said.
The
festival aims to support the government of India's Right To Education Act which
mandates reading and libraries for all schools. The idea for the festival is to
travel to children and areas where they do not have access to books, stories
and reading. The festival works with private as well as state government
schools including the municipal and state government schools as well as NGOs.
Books are also donated to schools to start class libraries where there are
none.
The
festival so far has been addressed by the likes of (Late) Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,
Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Margaret Alva, Sunil Shastri, Mohit Chauhan, Nandita Das,
Sushma Seth, Emily Gravett, Joanne Blake, TUUP, Joseph Baele, Xanthe Gresham,
among others. The main organizers of the festival are the NGOs Nivesh and
HHACH.
Kathakar
will be in Bengaluru on November 14 and it will travel to Mumbai on November
17.
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