The dark shadow of the 10-headed king Ravana against a pristine white screen fascinated filmmaker Shankhajeet De. He, along with villagers, was watching leather puppets portraying the story of Lord Rama rescuing Sita from Ravana against the flickering light of a bulb, while a group of folk singers sang episodes of Sundarkand in the background at a makeshift screen at Odash village in Angul district of central Odisha in 2011.
“Even today, Odash villagers prefer this form of shadow puppetry over television or cinema,” says the 43-year-old filmmaker, who recently won the 64th National Film Award for his documentary on Ravana Chhaya, the shadow puppetry form practiced in Odisha.
“In 2011, I had done a self-funded research on the art form, which revealed that there’s more to it than what meets the eye as far as its origin and development is concerned. This is what prompted me to make the film,” says Shankhajeet.
Ravana Chhaya, which got the heritage art tag in the 80s through Sangeet Natak Akademi, is known worldwide for its interplay of translucent and dark shadows and the use of lyrical Odia poetic rendition of Bichitra Ramayana written by Biswanath Khuntia in the 18th century.
With a little research going into tracing the origin of the art form, Shankhajeet’s film Samayara Chhaire (In the Shadow of Time) attempts to explore the journey and ownership of this ancient form of entertainment and storytelling.
“It is not Lord Rama but Ravana who is considered integral to the story of Ramayana due to his sheer appearance. Usually, the puppet of Ravana is the biggest and most beautifully carved amongst the other characters,” says the Odisha-born filmmaker and researcher, who is based in New Delhi. He makes documentary films with an ethnographic lens, and Samayara Chaire is his first attempt at making a feature length documentary. The 90-minute film has been produced by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.
Prior to making this film, Shankhajeet taught film-making at Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication in New Delhi for eight years. Subsequently, he received a fellowship from National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai, for his research on Ravana Chhaya.
The film travels 160 km in villages of Angul district to trace the origin of the art form. He says it was originally practised by the Bhatas, a Scheduled Caste community living in Angul district, to seek alms. “In the course of time, the patronage diminished and ownership shifted from Bhata community to Chasa (agrarian) community living in Odash village. These villagers have formed Ravana Chhaya Natya Sansad that claims to perform the art form in all its originality. The group has only one Bhata youth, who manipulates puppets during the show,” he says.
Apart from focusing on the art form, the film delves extensively into the lives of puppeteers. “The film does not just look into the aesthetic dimensions of Ravana Chhaya; it questions its ownership—from a caste-owned vocation to a village-owned art form,” says the director, whose interest lies in the subjects of culture, faith, tradition and performing practices.
“When the first guru of Ravana Chhaya, Kathinanda Das died, one of his disciples, Kolhapur Charan Das—a member of Chasa community—took it to Odash village and tried to revive the puppetry form. In the process, Bhatas lost patronage and this art form became the identity of Odash village,” he says. So, the puppets that earlier had a tribal look were created in Pattachitra style and audio cassettes replaced the singers. However, the Bhatas were never asked about ways to make Ravana Chhaya better. Today, they allege that they are not allowed to perform any more because their style is considered crude, he says.
“The point that I am trying to make through the film is that originality of the art form should have been retained in the name of keeping it alive,” says Shankhajeet, who is currently working on the aesthetics and narrative diversity of Ram Leela in Odisha.