Bhaona with female artistes as dohar, Gayan-Bayan and characters staged in Guwahati

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Bhaona is a traditional form of entertainment, with religious messages, prevalent is Assam. It is a creation of Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva, written in the early 16th century. He created this art form to convey religious messages to villagers through entertainment.

The plays of bhaona are popularly known as Ankiya Naats and their staging is known as bhaona. There are some special characteristics of bhaona like the plays, dialogues, costumes, ornaments, entry and footsteps of the characters. These characteristics helps to differentiate bhaona from other plays. In bhaona, male and female artistes play different characters. Dohar (orchestra) along with the Gayan-Bayan (musicians) form integral components of bhaona.

Perhaps for the first time, a bhaona was staged which had female artistes playing various characters and also as dohar and Gayan-Bayan. The bhaona which was staged on March 25 at the Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra by the Sankar Madhav Sanskritic Goshthi, Panjabari, was Rukmini Haran, written by Srimanta Sankardeva. Talking to The Sentinel, Sankar Madhav Sanskritic Goshthi general secretary Anupam Das said, “Women have played different characters in bhaonas. An idea struck us, that why not have women artistes playing characters as well as dohar and Gayan-Bayan in bhaona? We worked on this idea and finally staged Rukmini Haran. The female artistes who were part of the bhaona were from Guwahati as well as different parts of Assam.”

Das claimed that such a bhaona where female artistes enacted all the characters and were also dohar and Gayan-Bayan, was staged for the first time not just in Assam but in the country as well.

In Rukmini Haran staged on March 25, Niki Bora was the sutradhar, Rashmi Rekha Saikia played the role of Krishna, Rajashree played the role of Rukmini, Kakoli Hazarika played the role of Rukmobir, Ranjana Borgohain played the role of Sishupal while Dibyolata Baishaya was Narad. The khol (Bayan) was played by Krishna Pankaja Dutta, Rinkumoni Mahanta, Jyotishmita Barua and Principriya Saikia. On the other hand, Supriya Gogoi played the bahi. Upasana Dutta and Bhupali Kalita were the Gayan.

The bhaona was directed by Trishna Boragohain while the entire arrangement was done by Anupam Das.

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