Artists call for revival of dying folk form

Abid Bashir

Srinagar, Jan 07: It was a nostalgic moment when 72-year-old Ghulam Rasool Mir saw a band of four performing Band-e-Pather at city centre Lal Chowk on Wednesday.

A traditional Kashmiri folk dance form, Band-e-Pather, is facing a serious threat of extinction.

Mir, who had come to Srinagar all the way from his village in Baramulla district to buy winter clothes and shoes, had to leave his shopping midway as he couldn’t resist watching the performance.
“I saw this after several decades. They reminded me of my childhood when I used to go along with my father to watch Band-e-Pather when ever there were marriage functions in our village,” said Mir.
“It is a real fun to watch it, but we have lost it. We hardly see it anywhere. It is very unfortunate that our folk dances are dying a slow death,” he added.

Tata Indicom, which recently started its operations in Kashmir, had hired a team of baands (artists performing Band-e-Pather) to mark the inauguration of their new showroom at the city centre.
“It is a great moment for us. We have never played in Srinagar especially in Lal Chowk. We are happy. We will get Rs 3,000 for our 30 minute play,” said Ghulam Muhammad Bhat of Beeru.

Wearing traditional Kashmiri gown Pheran and white turban, Sonaullah Bhat, the oldest member of the team said: “It is a great moment for us. I am almost 65-years-old and I have played everywhere especially in villages like Shalteng, Maloora, and various other villages of Baramulla and Budgam district. But our plays are now confined to Doordarshan (DD) only.”

He said the DD people invite them occasionally to perform on Kashir channel against 3,000 rupees.

“This dance is almost over as hardly anybody in our village prefers it now. I remember the days when no marriages used to take place without this dance. But time has changed now,” said Bhat.
He pins hopes on the new Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah. “We hope he will take steps to revive the traditional dances of Kashmirs so that this dance would once again gain popularity among the masses,” he said.

Abdur Rehman, another member of the team said a few musicians visited their places last year and suggested them to bring some changes in the dances.

 “They want us to use more music items and to modify this play. But unless someone properly guides us, this is not possible,” he said.
“We are ready to do anything to keep this Kashmiri folk dance alive as we have been associated with it since our childhood.”

Band-e-Pather has a legacy of 300-400 years, being a popular genre of Kashmiri folk theatre. It was usually performed in villages on social and cultural functions.
 
[Rising Kashmir]

Posted on 09 Jan 2009 by Webmaster