Lucknow Mahanagar Ramleela: Here females play Ram, his brothers!

In Uttar Pradesh's Mahanagar, a unique Ramleela features women playing male roles, promoting inclusivity since 2021, blending tradition with Kumaoni style.

In the ongoing festive season, Ramleelas of various hues can be witnessed in Uttar Pradesh capital. One of them is organised in Mahanagar by members of Uttarakhandi community originally from Kumaon region. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that here young women and girls play four main characters of Lord Ram, Laxman, Bharat and Shatrughna.

Lucknow’s Mahanagar Ramleela, which started in 1962, has a history of experimenting with its cast. (Sourced)

This tradition was started in 2021. However, this Ramleela, which started in 1962, has a history of experimenting with its cast. They had an all-women Ramleela for two years in 1971 and 1972. The women began playing important female characters from 1997, says Mahendra Pant who directs the event.

“Most of our audience comes from the hill state. So, we are like an extended family which is performing and watching the Ramleela together. This was the reason why nobody ever questioned our experiments with the cast,” Pant further said.

Secretary, Mahanagar Ramleela Samiti, Hem Pant said that two founder members of the committee had an important role to play to promote women participation in the Ramleela.

“Interestingly, the name of both the founder members who promoted the move was Puranchand Pandey. One of them was known as Ashram as his house was named so and the other one who was also the director of the Ramleela had the word Ramleela added to his name. Both promoted participation of women in the event,” he added.

In 1997, a girl from Assam turned up to participate in the Ramleela. “She played the role of Ravan’s sister Shurpanakha and since then there has been no looking back,” he said.

“We introduced women into playing male characters - Ram, Laxman, Bharat and Shatrughna after our former director Puranchand Pandey ‘Ramleela’ thought that a woman’s voice quality remains more reliable for years than a male voice whose tone and pitch change with time,” Pant added.

He also shared that apart from the women playing male characters what makes Mahanagar Ramleela unique is that it is in Kumaoni style. In this style, Ramleela has an influence of classical music and the verses from Radheyshyam Ramayana are sung in between the scenes.