Documentary on dying tribal dance form, tarpa

Villagers perform the tribal dance in a circleA drone camera hovers over a cluster of huts that make up Chhas Gaon a sleepy hamlet in the foothills of the Sahyadris about 200km from Mumbai Its home to several tribes of Maharashtra including Warlis and Katkaris In the next few frames we witness the villagers going about their daily chores women washing utensils or drawing water from a well children bathing their siblings outside homes and men making their way to farms However the entire village comes alive during the Ganpati festival as residents both men and women form a human chain and perform a tribal dance tarpa to hypnotic tunes of the eponymous instrument that resembles a snake charmers been fluteA local plays the tarpaThe dance is neither choreographed nor rehearsed The performers follow a leader known as Udvya who coordinates the moves with the tarpakar who plays the tarpa on the spot narrates artiste Shreyas Desai in the voiceover of the eightminute documentary Tarpa It was uploaded last week on Folk Talkies a YouTube channel created to delve deeper into the folk culture of India It is managed by Myriad Arts a 30member artiste collective based in Mumbai launched last yearA birds eye view of Chhas GaonDiscover Chhas GaonThe idea to document the dance form was born two years ago when Desai an HR manager who has been practising folk dance and teaching them at NGOs and schools for over a decade began learning tarpa from dance teacher Vivek Tamhankar My research revealed that Chhas Gaon and Jawhar are the only two regions in Maharashtra that are home to tarpa dancers They travel across the state including Mumbai for performances during Ganpati and Gudi Padwa says the 30yearold who has conceptualised and scripted the documentaryShreyas DesaiLast year during Ganesh Chaturthi he led a team directoreditor Sahil Karnik researchers Tejashree Sawant and Anjali Patil DOP Vishal Patil and production head Pranali Nimkar for a fiveday selffunded shoot in the village They connected with Rajan Vaidya a local artiste who helped them get access to the dancers and also shared the origins of the dance form It started in ancient times as a means of community entertainment There are several traditions associated with it When a family member dies and relatives are expected from other villages the locals play the instrument through the night shares DesaiOffering a glimpse into the village he says There are about 200 residents who earn 2000 per month and still follow the barter system There is constant power shortage in the area and many of the night shots were taken with the help of light from smartphones The villagers are also disciplined They dance only on special occasions and post sunset no one is allowed to play the instrument as it disturbs the locals We were even asked to keep our phones on silentMaking the instrumentThe documentary also features a local who showcases how the instrument is handcrafted Without a particular shape a tarpa is made from bamboo dried bottle gourd and honeybee wax Due to deforestation the locals havent been able to source materials to make the instrumentIn fact last year they pooled in 5000 to procure the wood that would go into making the instrument Secondly many from the younger generation have migrated to cities and are not interested in upholding the dance form Its a dying art says Desai Next the team plans to focus on the lezim folk dance and upload at least one such documentary a monthLog on to bitly2waqUN5You may also like In pictures 35 mustvisit food outlets in Mumbai