Love to listen to a good story? Head to this fest in the Capital
Storytelling is an art that anyone can master, and to some extent, all of us are storytellers. But, an ongoing festival in town will bring the best in the field on one platform — so if you love a good story, maybe this one’s for you.
The annual event, Kathakar International Storytellers Festival, is bringing together 18 storytellers including Shaguna Gahilote, Xanthe Gresham, Godfrey Duncan, Pankaj Tripathi and poet Danish Husain as part of it. That’s not all, one can also expect singer Mohit Chauhan, spiritual leader Sadhguru and filmmaker Imtiaz Ali telling stories here.
The three-day event is an initiative of three Dehradun born sisters — Prarthana, Rachna and Shaguna Gahilote — who have transformed the art of storytelling through dramatised performances.
“Storytelling is an ancient art form, which is found in every culture and in each part of the world, but it is yet to be recognised as a stand alone art form. It’s usually put under theatre, which is a modern concept. Kathakar celebrates this ancient art, opens up a dialogue on how to revive it, and include it in mainstream culture,” said Prarthana Gahilote, coorganiser of the festival.
Husain, who is attending the festival for the third time, says, “The festival is truly an exciting and unique effort to get storytellers from all over the world on one platform. This is the third time I am participating in the festival and it delights me that it is only getting bigger and better.”
Husain will present a contemporary adaptation of Qissa Urdu Ki Aakhri Kitaab Ka, originally written by Pakistani poet Ibn-e-Insha.
The festival is also curating some of the rare Indian art forms such as the dolls theatre by Sudip Gupta from Kolkata; Rajasthan’s Phad (scroll) storytelling by Kalyan Joshi; Powada, the vibrant narration of the tales surrounding Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, by Adinath Bapurao Vibhute; and the Pandavani tales (about the Pandavas of the Mahabharat) by Ritu Verma.
Popular storyteller Godfrey Duncan, who will present the age-old story of Vikram Betal says, “We have adapted the story of
Vikram Betal as The King and The Corpse for the first time in India, though I’ve been to the festival twice before. The story is so deep and meaningful. It is a story that perhaps everybody knows here. So I am looking forward to how the audience reacts to it.”