Kolkata, Jan 25 (PTI) Faced with challenges such as waning youth participation and growing popularity of social media reels, fifty-seven-year-old Madhab Sarkar at Khagail village in West Bengal's Dakshin
Dinajpur district is striving to keep alive the Gamira dance, a masked folk art form rooted in ritual and storytelling.
Sarkar, who helms a Gamira troupe with around 20 members in the area, told PTI that he has been practising the art for decades, but the changed scenario has made him and other group members worried.
“I had picked up the dance steps, the 'mudra' and the intricacies from my father, who had also been taught the skills by my grandfather. It is in our veins. My son is being groomed to be another Gamira dancer. But the situation is not the same for others. My colleagues often tell me their children are not interested in practising this art anymore,” he said.
Sarkar said they used to get at least 10 bookings during the season from May to July, but the number has gone down to 4-5 in recent years.
“We do harvesting work in other times of the year, but never slacken our rigorous practising schedule in a year to keep ourselves fit and agile. But I don’t know how to sustain it as people, even in villages, don’t seem to be interested anymore in the dance form,” he added.
Gamira - a traditional masked folk dance - features characters such as Bura–Buri (representing Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati), goddess Kali, and Narasingha Avatar of Bishnu, and the dance, accompanied by sounds of traditional drum, is performed without vocal music.
The wooden mask, which received the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2018, helps protect the art form, he said.
“We never compromise on the design and material used for making the masks, and it has been so for generations,” Sarkar said.
He said around 100 Gamira dancers – split into different troupes – are now continuing with the form in the Kushmandi block.
“We need 16-20 members for a single performance to depict an entire story. But as the attention span of people has become shorter, we have to prepare it in a short, brief format," he said.
The performers remain committed not to allow “the indigenous culture to become extinct in the coming days", Sarkar said.
"The dance form remains undiluted without any adjustments or modifications in tune with contemporary times. Some among us are using cork as a material to make the masks in place of wood. But that is a gimmick. We have to guard against such trends,” he said.
Even during elections, these performers had a packed schedule as people in rural areas did not want to curtail the scale of local festivals where folk performances were an integral part, Sarkar said, adding that "now, things seem to have changed as the orders remain few and far between".
Asked about the government's help to promote their art, he said, “While we get Rs 1,000 a month under the ‘Lokprasar Prakalpa' of the West Bengal government, we request the state to hike the honourarium to at least Rs 8,000-10,000, given the present economic situation.”
Sarkar said his troupe has been taken to places like Delhi, Goa, apart from Kolkata, for shows to project the rich tapestry of heritage and culture, but these programmes don’t happen every month.
"Not every troupe and artiste gets the chance. We have to depend on bookings at the local level and performances organised by clubs privately during occasions like Durga Puja and Bengali Naba Barsho (New Year) at times. But such offers are also few and far between.”
From 10 bookings received by a troupe in a year, even a few years back, the number has halved on average in present times, he said.
“We are also banking on calls from political parties to showcase our indigenous dance during cultural shows. We are asked to present a 10-20 minute dance programme at the commencement of such programmes and have to wrap up when the main speakers arrive, and we have to get down from the podium with the costumes and instruments. But the payments are good, and let’s see if such offers pour in this year again after poll dates are announced,” Sarkar said.
The West Bengal assembly elections are due this year.
The typical dance form is only alive in the Kushmandi area of Uttar Dinajpur, and the Centre and the state government should work towards promoting this form, he added. PTI SUS BDC
