Kathakar 2019 to weave magic of storytelling

The magic of storytelling will be spread over the national capital through ethnic tales from around the globe at the 9th edition of Kathakar festival beginning on October 11 here. Organised by cultural forum Nivesh, the three-day festival will open with a session, "Kissey Kahani Aur Adakaari", between actor Manoj Bajpayee and musician Mohit Chauhan, at the Sundar Nursery here.

Touted to be India's "only storytelling festival", Kathakar will witness 17 post-sunset sessions. The storytelling sessions will focus on native tales from India, Poland, Australia, Sweden, Romania, Mongolia, Lithuania and the United Kingdom, the organisers said.

Theatre actor-director Danish Husain will be back with his multilingual storytelling project - "Qissebazi" with a set of new Haryanvi folktales performed by Rashmi Mann and Ruchita Tahiliani. Husain will perform in Hindustani. While Sangeet Natak awardee Tholpavakoothu artistes, the Kerala Shadow puppeteers, will perform shadow theatre based on Ramayana, Swedish-British artiste Emily Hennessey will perform "Kali: Stories from ancient India" and "Tales from the Mahabharat".

Also for the first time, Kathakar 2019 will see Buddhist chanting by Grammy awardee Monks of Sherabling in Himachal Pradesh. In another first, aborigine storyteller Uncle Larry Walsh will recount his indigenous tales in his debut experience with an Indian audience.

Polish storyteller Emilia Raiter will sing traditional ballads and share stories of Slavic myths, Jerzy Szufa will spellbind the audience with stories from the European country. The event will also witness sessions by UK-based storyteller Vergine Gulbenkian, Amrita Tripathi, and Shaguna Gahilote from India.

It will also feature morning segments with the participation of children from Delhi's municipal, government, private, community and civil society school. The festival will come to an end with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali's session "Kissey, Kahani aur Cinema" on October 13.