Tuesday, April 20, 2010

BURRA KATHA.....


Burra is referred to Tambura, a musical instrument with a hallow shell and attached strings. Katha means story.The name "Burrakatha" refers to same art in entire Andhra Pradesh, but there are also local names to the art in each region.
Coastal region - Jangam Katha
Rayalaseema - Tandana katha or suddulu
Telangana - Tamboora katha or sarada katha.

Burrakatha started as devotional songs of nomadic people and became a popular art form and is played on Radio and TV regularly in Andhra Pradesh. It is a new name (twentieth century) for the theater show known as Jangam Katha. The jangams were wandering minstrels who worshiped and sang of Siva. Two performers participated in these plays: the storyteller and his wife. With societal and cultural changes, the secular aspect was incorporated into this form. Modern form has three performers of any gender.
The main story teller(called as Kathakudu) narrates the story. He plays Tambura and dances to music. He also wears a metal ring called as andelu on his right thumb, holds another ring in his other hand and adds more music by colliding them frequently. The co-performers plays gummeta(also called as dakki or budike), earthen drums with two heads. All three or only kathakadu will be wearing anklets(also called as gajjelu), which add even more music when they dance.
The right side performer(called as the hasyaka, means joker) acts as a joker and cracks satires and jokes. The left side performer(called as the rajakiya, means politician) acts as a person who knows worldly ways and talks about politics and social issues. The main performer and co-performers constantly addressing each other. The co-performers interrupts him with doubts, and they sometimes add emphasis the main events in the story with short words similar to "Wow!" ,"aaha" and "That it it".
Whenever the main performer sings a song, he starts with "vinara veera kumara veera gadha vinara" followed by the co-performers singing "tandhana tane tandhana na", hence it is also called 'tandana katha'.

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