Bundeli Ramkatha - बुंदेली रामकथा

Bundeli Ramkatha

Shri Anandi Lal Kurmi, son of Late Kalyan Singh Kurmi,was born on 10.05.1986 in village Oriamal, Distt. Damoh of Madhya Pradesh. He was initiated in the style of Tamula Bhajan (singing devotional songs with one string instrument) by his grand father Shri Harisingh Kurmi.

The people of his village used to sing Ramayana in local Bundeli dialect. The singing was blended with narration and histrionics. Innovations and new interpretations in the presentation of age old story are very interesting. At the instance of his grandfather and under instructions of his paternal uncle, Anandi Lal cultivated the form of Bundeli Ramayan, documenting the corpus of Ramayana songs interwoven with narration. He performs Ramayan with rare abandon, interspersed with comments on contemporary scenario.

Shri Anandi Lal has given performances of various prasangas from Bundeli Ramayan at Rashtriya Ramlila Mela, Orcha, organised by M.P. Adivasi Lok Kala Akademi, Bhopal; Bhavabhuti Samaroha organised under the auspices of Kalidasa Akademi, Ujjain at Dabra; University Youth Festival 2007-08 at Sagar and on various other occassions. In his performance he is accompanied by Dr. Santosh Sahoo, Shri Kapil Shrivastava, Shri Manoj Kumar Shilpkar, Shri Ashish Shrivastav, Shri Sachin Khare and Shri Dipak Kushwaha.

Courtesy: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts