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History and Development of Nautanki In English
Nautanki
- Nautanki is the name of a folk dance and drama style of North India, Pakistan and Nepal.
- It is a descendant of the farce tradition in the Indian subcontinent from ancient times and takes its name from a famous dance-drama called ‘Shehzadi Nautanki’ based on a historical ‘Nautanki’ princess from Multan (Pakistani Punjab).
- Starting from Punjab, the Nautanki style quickly became popular and spread across North India.
- High-status people of the society considered it ‘cheap’ and ‘obscene’ but this folk-art flourished.
History and Development
- Most critics believe that ‘nautanki is an evolved form of farce genre’.
- Nautanki stories are often based on a person or an important theme, such as the Nautanki of Alha-Udal. Similarly, ‘Sultana Daku’ nautanki tells the story of a dacoit of the same name in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh.
- During India’s freedom struggle, there were many gimmicks on that subject, which inspired the general public to join this struggle.
- Now-a-days dramas can be seen against dowry-malpractices, terrorism and communal fights.
- Traditionally, in order to make money in gimmicks, it was important that the audience was never bored, so most gimmicks consisted of a sequence of events of 10 minutes or less, with each part holding the audience’s attention. Trying to maintain interest.
- Heroism, love, humour, song and dance and religion are mixed to keep the story interesting and the narrator tries to keep the audience’s emotions going up and down.
