Travelling fest organized by a group of North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala infuses life into Kashmir’s dying folk theatre form – ‘Bhand-e-Paether’. Performances are being held across the Valley, especially in rural areas, and the shows have got a thumbs up from the audience.
“The aim of the festival is to preserve and promote the dying art of ‘Bhand-e-Paether’. We are performing in Budgam, Anantnag, Baramulla, Bandipora and Srinagar. The festival started on October 7 when we performed in Budgam and on Tuesday, we reached Aishmuqam (in south Kashmir). It will conclude on October 17,” said Mushtaaque Ali Ahmad Khan, consultant for the North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala — the group that has organised the festival.
Khan said all Valley-based folk theatre groups and ‘dambali’ folk dance groups had been invited to participate in the festival.
Rayees Wathori, a youth who heads the Cultural Society, Wathora, and has been actively promoting folk theatre in the past few years, said this was for the first time that a festival of this scale was being held to promote ‘Bhand-e-Paether’.
“Though we have had events to promote folk theatre before, this is for the first time that I have seen a festival being held to promote ‘Bhand-e-Paether’ on a large scale. As many as 36 groups, each having around 15 artists, are taking part and we are having shows across Kashmir,” he said.
Wathori said the festival would go a long way towards reviving the folk theatre form that he said was once looked down upon even by other artists.
“There was a time when even some theatre and television actors would look down upon ‘Bhand-e-Paether’ artists because they were not educated. However, things are changing gradually. In our group, all youth are well-educated and have taken up the challenge to revive this art form,” Wathori said.
He said the performances during the festival, besides entertaining people, raised awareness on wildlife conservation, environment and social evils like dowry and drug abuse.
