Performing The Goddess - Film June 15, 2009

Performing The Goddess - Film. Director: Naveen Kishore. Research and Script: Anjum Katyal. Cinematography: Pushan Kripalani. Chapal Bhaduri alias Chapal Rani or Queen Chapal, leading lady of Bengals traditional folk traveling theatre-in-the-round, the Jatra, spent his life playing women. Until history changed tradition and women began to play female roles themselves. Out of work, ageing, he turned to a new livelihood: that of playing Sitala, the dreaded goddess of pox and disease, in dramatized performances of the goddesss sacred saga. This intimate video biography brings you face to face with a unique individual, reminiscing about the world of Jatra, discussing what it meant to be a woman night after night, talking for the first time of the woman inside his male body, of troubled sexuality, of a long domestic partnership with his older lover, of the essential loneliness of living as a human being on the edges of conventional society - and showing how he metamorphoses into the goddess in order to perform her story. In the process we get a fascinating view of the professional Jatra, an integral part of the peoples culture in Bengal. In-depth interviews, extracts from milestone fragments of Jatra plays, the makeup process that metamorphoses a man into a goddess, and documentation of the play on the goddess, provide you with a rare entry into an unusual world, and a close look at Chapal Bhaduris life and work.

Official Website: http://www.buzzintown.com/?112513&ref=yupg&refcity=6