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PUPPETRY
Puppetry is an ancient but now slowly disappearing form of folk drama which
is always performed in open places in villages.
Puppet shows are held at night because the wonderland atmosphere required is
more easily created in the darkness of the night. Stage setting is very simple.
Two or three bare cots are placed sideways and curtained with some multi-coloured cloth. Puppets are dressed according to the character that they
are supposed to represent. The dresses are generally very bright and colourful.
The strings tied to the puppets are not visible in the dim light of the
earthen lamp. The roles that the puppets play are all manipulated by the
puppeteer. He makes them dance, fight and perform various other acts associated
with normal human behaviour. He keeps in his mouth a pipni, an improvised bamboo
gadget through which he filters his speech, for transforming his voice. His wife
sits on one side of the stage and plays the drum. Whenever the situation demands
she sings an appropriate song. The scenes are well enacted. The warriors fight,
the wrestlers show of mettle in bouts, the lovers suffering from the pangs of separation
are sometimes intoxicated with the ecstasy of fulfillment. The
puppeteer being generally an expert artist, presents various phases of human
life on his stage and in doing so adds his own touches of humour and satire.
Most of the puppeteers originally came from Rajasthan or received training
from a Rajasthani artist. Hence most of the anecdotes which they present are
about Rajput folk heroes.
KHEORA
Kheora is a form of folk entertainment which is a high-pitch singing usually
performed at weddings and festivals. Two groups sit on the terraces of two
different houses and in the solitude of the night, converse with each other
through metrical compositions- a unique setting, so different from a regular
stage. Most of the compositions are sung in popular tunes. The most appropriate
time for such performances is the earlier part of moonlit nights. Sometimes
Kheora singing lasts through the whole night.
MADARIS, BAZIGARS AND SAPERAS
The jugglers
(madaris), acrobats (bazigars) and snake-charmers (saperas) are
entertainers who keep moving through the towns, villages and streets of the
Punjab. A juggler often trains a bear or a monkey and takes it along with him.
He sounds his damroo (tiny drum) thus inviting the audience. The animals are
well trained to perform interesting feats like a wedding of the monkeys or a
bear dance or a bear hug.
Bazigars carry long poles and ropes.
Where a performance has to be given, they
dig up ground, stick two poles horizontally, tie a tight rope on them and then
made a young boy or a girl perform a tight -rope dance. The nomadic Bazigars
wander about with their families, settling for a few days or weeks at a time in
the vicinity of large villages or towns.
Saperas keep snakes in their
baskets, play catchy tunes on specially made pipes called beens and make the
snakes dance to their tunes.
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