Gautam Chatterjee’s voice is brimming with excitement, his whole being agitated but in a pleasant way. He is clearly overwhelmed with the experience of documenting Ramnagar’s Ramlila, one of the biggest theatres of the world that plays out for 31 days in Ramnagar, a small town in Varanasi. He was the director of Ramnagar Ramlila Project initiated by Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) to document the 200-year-old Ramlila.
A living tradition, in 2005, UNESCO recognised it as intangible world cultural heritage but there was not much audio-visual reference material for in terms of the team at IGNCA that was gearing up for the challenging assignment.
Formally, Anant Narayan Singh, the Kashi Naresh, as the titular king of Varanasi is addressed, under whose aegis the entire event takes place, has kept it a closed event. “No channel has ever been allowed to record the event. Finally, he relented as a special case for the Government of India,” says Chatterjee. But without any compromises. “The actors don’t use microphones and there are no electric lights. So how do you shoot? In such a scenario, canning 31 days of Ramlila for archival purposes was a tough task,” relates Chatterjee.
However, the team stood up to the challenge and the 30-member crew returned with 405 hours of shoot, out of which the post-production team has made 30-minute episodes to be screened at IGNCA daily till October 27. It has also been made into TV episodes for DD Bharti which will also be screened till October 27, coinciding with the actual lila at Ramnagar, which has already started.
Ramlila is not a spectacle for the inhabitants of Ramnagar. They are part of it. Each one of them holds a copy of Tulsidas’ “Ramcharitmanas”, the version followed here, and recites along with the actors and Vyas, the designate controller of the act. “The Raavan is not Raavan here but Raavanji. One character is respected by the other and the person who plays it. So, Raavan stays some 30 kms away from the main town and we reached his house with the help of people giving directions to his house,” reminisces Chatterjee.
The king himself selects the actors for the roles of Ram, Sita, Laxman, Bharat and Shatrughan. For three months, they stay in a gurukul which is maintained by two controllers (Vyas). “Since these are all school going boys, Kashi Naresh organises teachers for them to come to gurukul and teach them so that they don’t miss their classes. Also, the children are accompanied by their parents in gurukul so that they don’t feel homesick. They are not expected to eat outside food. We have tried to capture all these aspects and much more – performance, decoration, crafts, masks…,” says Chatterjee.
This primary audio-visual documentation, believes Chatterjee, is seminal material for research scholars. “There are interviews with the actors and scholars in Varanasi on the subject.”
Capturing an event of this scale came with a set of challenges. Chief cameraman Sarabjeet Singh Dhillon explains that managing a team of eight camera people without wireless was tough. “Another unique thing of this Ramlila is that it moves. The four-hour act everyday is spread out in the area of 10 kms. And even within one location, there are several stages. So, the challenge was to coordinate with each other and wrap up in time and reach the spot. Another difficulty was that the cameras had to be about 20 feet away and no light except those petromax lights which we see during marriage processions,” says Sarabjeet.
While four cameras were shooting the act on stage, four cameras were amongst the audience capturing their reactions. “One cameraman was told to just focus on Ramayani, a group of 12 artists, who sing the entire Ramcharitmanas on stage during the course of Ramlila and not to miss even one moment. It was difficult to get this rhythm in pictures and you can’t lose a single frame because of the content. But we managed and we managed well,” says G.S. Raina, creative producer.
Practical practice
At ‘Bimb-pratibimb’– yet another outcome of the exercise – an extensive exhibition of photographs of Ramlila is on display at IGNCA. You can’t miss the shot of a hermit who has covered himself with tarpaulin during rain and holds the torch and reads from the scripture alongside.
