BHADRAK: One day, Jagannath Patra of Bhadrak dresses up like Lord Shiva. Next day, he shifts his disguise to become Goddess Kali. The third day, he wears the get-up of Lord Krishna. Come Kali Puja or any festival, Jagannath can be seen dressed up in various avatars - from Gods to demons.
He performs in public places and accepts money, clothes and food, anything that a viewer can shell out. But, he does not beg. The Bahurupi entertains by enacting roles of mythological characters and wanders from village to village to eke out a living by entertaining people.
Every day in Bhadrak during Kali Puja, Jagannath paints himself as a God or Goddess or any other mythological character and can be seen moving from one pandal to the other. He had no formal training on body painting and learnt the skill from another Bahurupi, Sanatan Patra.
“I was working in a hotel in Balasore town and one day, I came across Patra, who was dressed like a Goddess. I joined him as an assistant and he taught me the nuances of the trade. I started performing in 2005,” he recalls.
All these years, Jagannath has mastered the trade of make-up, dance moves and voice modulation required for his performances. He usually enacts a story related to the mythological character that he is portraying.
“Every show of mine is an one-man show from beginning to end,” Jagannath says. His costume box has all kinds of things like tridents, axe, bow and arrow, wigs, sticks, plastic swords, masks and toy rifles.
Apart from almost all the areas in Bhadrak, Jagannath has performed in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. With the money that he earns, Jagannath feeds his family of five.
He likes dressing up like Lord Hanuman, Narada, Goddess Kali, Lord Shiva and Krishna, which are his favourite mythological characters. In the Muslim-dominated areas of Bhadrak, he dresses up as a ‘fakir’. Similarly, during national events like Republic Day and Independence Day, Jagannath becomes ‘Bharat Mata’ or ‘Mahatma Gandhi’.