On a bare patch of ground in a village in the hinterlands of Maharashtra’s Pune district, Malati Inamdar, 48, sits in a makeshift tent watching labourers erect a stage for that night’s tamasha. Transformed by the labourers’ efforts, the ground will host thousands of villagers later that night for hours of dancing, lewd comedy, social satire, song and theatre.
Malati, owner of the eponymous Malati Inamdar Loknatya Tamasha Mandal, has been travelling all day with her large company of over 100 performers, technicians and labourers. They are moving, like so many other companies, small and large, from village to village putting on shows every night, extending a tradition that has existed in one form or another since the 18th century. Some date the tamasha’s antecedents to a much older native…
