The big open-air stage is about in entrance of a Shiva temple. A vibrant throne is positioned on it. Giant numbers of males, girls and kids have gathered on its three sides and eagerly await the arrival of Mirza Sahib in a procession.

As Mirza Sahib approaches the stage, a Hindu priest and a Muslim fakir sing and dance in reward of Shiva and Allah and hug one another. The play unfolds.

Just like the viewers, the massive variety of characters who take the stage one after one other are each Hindu and Muslim, and so they interchange roles of characters from each communities.

A slice of custom

For the previous 250 years, this distinctive folks theatre referred to as Mogal Tamasha has been thriving within the small city of Bhadrak in Odisha. And each Hindus and Muslims take nice satisfaction in a convention that they name their ‘personal’.

Curiously, Mogal Tamasha was first established to take care of communal concord and it has survived solely on this city. Bhadrak has equally giant Muslim and Hindu populations and it witnessed two main communal riots in 1991 and 2017.

Bhadrak has all the time performed an enormous position in Odisha’s historical past. Strategically positioned on the erstwhile Grand Trunk Street that passes through Jajpur, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, connecting Kolkata with Puri, it has held an necessary place within the administrative, army, business, spiritual and cultural affairs of the State.

Mogal Tamasha was created by poet Bansi Ballav Goswami round 1780, a cultural consequence of when Bhadrak was a part of the Mughal empire. Odisha was Mughal territory for practically 200 years till the Marathas took over in 1751. The folks theatre depicts the corrupt practices of the Mughal administration in a farcical and comical method.

Poet Bansi Ballav was adept in six languages — Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Sanskrit and Odia (his mother-tongue) — and the Tamashas he scripted and directed have been multi-lingual.

Though he wrote a lot of Tamashas, simply seven scripts have survived, of which solely Mogal Tamasha is staged now.

Believed to be the poet-playwright’s magnum opus, Mogal Tamasha has not solely survived the onslaught of time, its inherent message of communal concord has develop into the image of peaceable co-existence on this city.

“Simply after the communal clashes of 2017, I staged a present right here. Practically two-thirds of my viewers have been Muslim girls,” says Badal Sikdar, the octogenarian exponent of the theatre kind and a recipient of the Natya-Guru award from the Ministry of Tradition.

Sikdar performed a pivotal position in redesigning Mogal Tamasha. Earlier staged from nightfall to daybreak within the open, Sikdar tailored it for the proscenium stage and an city viewers. He additionally launched girls actors.

Says Kanta Singh, an Odia cinema actor from Bhadrak who shifted to tamasha, “There was numerous criticism once I determined to affix Badal Sikdar’s Sanket troupe in 1988. However I went forward and progressively the presence of girls in Mogal Tamasha discovered social acceptance.”

“I believed that ladies characters have to be performed by girls actors as a way to give a sensible really feel to the play. I launched feminine actors regardless of a lot criticism, and 32 years later, we have now so many ladies actors from Bhadrak who take satisfaction in being members of Mogal Tamasha troupes,” says Sikdar.

“We think about Mogal Tamasha the satisfaction of Bhadrak and our nationwide heritage,” says Abdul Bari, a social activist, who received the Nationwide Concord Award for his position in restoring peace within the city throughout communal tensions.

Sikdar agrees, “Saifullah is my favorite actor, who likes to essay any character, Muslim or Hindu. Equally, Nizam sings songs in reward of Shiva within the play. We, the artistes and viewers of Bhadrak, are oblivious of our spiritual identification so far as Mogal Tamasha is anxious.”

Why did Mogal Tamasha stay confined to Bhadrak in contrast to different artwork traditions of the State which might be common throughout geographical boundaries? “Its custom prohibited anybody aside from the ustads (exponents and troupe leaders) to stage it. It was even believed that if anybody unauthorised tried to stage it, they’d die of some illness.

“The administrators and actors have been thus restricted to the 9 villages in and round Bhadrak the place Mogal Tamasha was part of the annual Chaitra Parva (spring pageant),” explains Krushna Charan Behera, famend researcher and professor of Odia literature, whose 11 years of persistent effort lastly introduced the script to the general public in printed kind in 1966.

The unique palm-leaf manuscript, preserved and worshipped by the practitioners, was destroyed in a fireplace. Nonetheless, bits and items of it had been famous down by actors to memorise dialogue, sequences and songs. The professor, a pupil of Bhadrak School who later turned a lecturer there, spoke to those actors and compiled a quantity from what they remembered. The gathering was printed as a e book that was handled as a priceless discovery in literary, historic and cultural circles.

All India Radio and Doordarshan documented it and introduced it. As folks outdoors Bhadrak got here to know of it, Mogal Tamasha was invited to plenty of theatre festivals. And administrators like Badal Sikdar developed abridged variations appropriate for the proscenium stage about 4 many years in the past.

“Within the final 40 years, my troupe has staged greater than 300 exhibits throughout Odisha and India. Each city and rural audiences get pleasure from our exhibits,” says Sikdar.

Although there isn’t a particular plot and a lot of the 18 characters usually are not essentially related, the style of its presentation makes it thrilling for the viewers. “I consider the visionary poet-playwright crafted Mogal Tamasha conserving in thoughts the socio-cultural realities of his city. The topic, remedy, languages used, place of efficiency, background of actors and audiences have contributed in sustaining communal concord on this area,” says Behera.

Regardless of the accolades Sikdar has acquired for the revival of Mogal Tamasha, he’s disheartened. “With out patronage it has develop into a dying custom,” he says. “Through the years, the 9 authentic villages have merged into Bhadrak. So the custom of celebrating Chaitra Parva and allied rituals like Mogal Tamasha have additionally disappeared. The variety of troupes has come down from 13 to simply 3. Until the Authorities steps in with a particular motion plan, it can fade into oblivion once more,” he warns.

“Occasions and tastes have modified, however the mass enchantment of Mogal Tamasha continues, apparently resulting from its basic creative construction and inherent components of communal concord,” says Nationwide Award successful filmmaker, Himansu Khatua, whose documentary Kahe Ballav, made two years in the past on the theatre kind, has been screened throughout the globe.

The Bhubaneshwar-based writer writes on tradition and heritage.