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Nautanki loses lustre, artistes fall on hard times

By Narayan Bareth

Once the nautanki theatre was very popular in Rajasthan’s Brij and Mewat regions and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, but now the popular art form is facing a difficult time. Most of its performers (folk artistes) don’t want to carry forward the centuries-old tradition to the next generation.

Ramprasad, a nautanki artiste, says: "I am not passing it to my children because there are no takers for nautanki and one can’t feed his family through performing in nuatanki. A group of nautanki artistes performed in a show in Jaipur recently and said the it did not attract many people.

Karauli’s Madan Lal has spent most of his life performing in the nautanki. He said: "With the advent of cinema, television and cassettes, nautanki lost its space. It has every thing to mesmerise viewers as it has songs, music, drama, acting and dialogue. But people are now hooked to TV serials."

The nautanki has occupied pride of place in the society for centuries. "There were days when we kept the audience engaged whole night at cattle fairs and farmers liked it," says Madan Lal. The art form of nautanki is based on folk songs and dances. It consists of folklore and artistes play the roles of mythological characters of history like Raja Harishchandra and Raja Amar Singh of Rajasthan.

Sandeep Madan, Jawahar Kala Kendra’s programme officer, said that not only nautanki but other art forms were also struggling to retain their place in the society. "It is painful to note that all art forms are facing a tough time. Artists are trying to keep alive their centuries-old traditions. The government is helping forms like nautanki. We manage to arrange shows. We also organised a workshop to motivate new generation, but we found very few interested people," Lal said.

Asha Verma learnt it through her mother, late Mushtar Bai, and is still performing in a nautanki. "My mom was perhaps the first woman artiste in the region staging nautanki. But I will not train my children," she said.

"There is no scope for nautanki because this is an era of consumerisation. But we got addiction of this form and can’t go away," she said.

"It is very difficult for an artiste to run her family while performing in nautanki," she said. She says there was a time when a large number of people thronged to watch the nautanki shows.

"The popular art form is losing its charm. In fact, it’s dying. I got it through my father, but I did not encourage my children to follow it. We are unable to earn a livelihood through nautanki," says Ramprasad.