Kathak Log of Kathak Villages

The film, “Kathak Log of Kathak Villages” unravels the story of Kathak villages, Kathak Log, and Kathak dance as we know today, shattering many popular perceptions.
A casual remark about Kathak Villages opened the doors to a fascinating journey of discovery relating to the community of Kathaks (the Kathak Log) who narrated and enacted stories from ancient texts through the medium of song and dance.
The 7,000 kilometers of travel through north India and five years of untiring field work investigation and research, going from village to village, seeing Kathaks dance in temples, meeting Maharajas, dancers, scholars and swamis, layers upon layers of history were unveiled. Laced with anecdotes, legends and archival evidence, the film unearths little-known facts of pre-Christian era roots of Kathak and its role as a pedagogical tool which helped in propagating and preserving ‘dharma’, over the centuries, which continues as a living temple tradition today.
This cultural tradition is a reflection of the vision and mission as stated in Chapter 1 of the Natyashastra and the location of Kathak villages whispers their connection with the legend of Raja Nahush of Pratishthanpur as given in chapter 36 of the Natyashastra. The film throws light on the sociological order involving ‘varna’ and ‘jati’ and the relationship with the Vrindaban Raasleela tradition. It also explores the impact of later Mughal period and the colonial era on the traditions of the Kathak Lok.
Breathing and living the spirit of ‘kanta sammit updesh’, the Brahmin Kathak Lok were not viewed as entertainers but as narrators of ‘dharma’. There was minimal emphasis on rhythmic wizadry and physical skills that have come to be associated with proscenium Kathak of urban areas today. Today, the Kathak dance is in a re-incarnated state as an urbanized Kathak dance form full of rhythmic wizadry, performed not only by male members of the family of Kathak Lok but also by members of all gharanas of Kathak and by women who have taken to the dance form with passion and dedication.
The Kathak villages whisper the story of bygone eras of the art of divine worship, of shifting patronage, of migration, of their struggle to raise their voices in the din of urbanized Kathak dance. They are pointers to a struggling living tradition of Kathak Lok, inheritors of the ‘kanta sammit updesh’ parampara.