Princess Nautanki

Devendra Sharma and Sharvari Deshpande performing in a Nautanki. Photographer Shayoni Mitra

Nautanki is the princess of the kingdom of Multan. She is so beautiful and intelligent that many suitors, mostly princes, come to get her hand in marriage, but all fail. Oblivious of Nautanki’s existence, somewhere in a village in Punjab lives a happy-go-lucky but adventurous and intelligent young man named Phūl Singh Punjabi. Some versions call him Kunwar Singh.

Phul Singh’s whole family loves him, i.e., his parents, brother, and sister-in-law. He is especially a favorite of his sister-in-law, who is affectionate with him and takes good care of him. Phul Singh’s time is spent in recreation as he is not interested in work. But he has mastered many arts.        One day, when he returns tired from one of his hunting expeditions, he orders his bhabhi (sister-in-law) to warm up some water to bathe, cook his fresh food, and then make his bed so he can rest after bathing and eating. The sister-in-law is not in a good mood and gets angry at his devar’s (brother-in-law) command. She sarcastically says to Phul Singh that she is not his servant and if he wants to treat a woman like a servant, then better the most accomplished and beautiful woman, i.e., nautanki. Phul Singh cannot accept this insensitive, angry remark from his sister-in-law, whom he considered the most affectionate. He decides right there that he is going to leave home in search of nautanki and would only return if and when he marries her. It starts an emotional storm at home, and everyone from Phul Singh’s parents to his brother tries to persuade him not to leave the house. His mother tells him that he would not survive without him. The sister-in-law feels particularly guilty and assures Phul Singh that her sarcastic remarks were made in anger, did not mean anything, and that she really loves him. But all this to no avail. Phul Singh leaves his home.

The story then becomes fascinating, in which Phul Singh hatches a clever plan to enter nautanki’s palace with the help of her old female gardener. She enters the palace cross-dressing as a female and even spends a night with nautanki, who ends up falling in love with him. However, Phūl Singh is given away, betrayed by one of the princess’s maids, and arrested by Kotwal (police chief) on the orders of Nautanki’s father, the king. The story then goes on with lots of twists, but it is nautanki who emerges as the “hero” of the story and saves the life of her lover fighting a battle with her father’s soldiers and convincing her father to marry her and Phul Singh. After the wedding, she goes with Phul Singh to his village to fulfill his vow. Phul Singh’s family is naturally beyond themselves with joy, and Phul Singh’s sister-in-law is happy that because of her, the family’s fortune has completely changed, and she has a fantastic sister-in-law. Nautanki Shahzadi was way ahead of its time, or maybe the times became more accepting of its themes. It features a woman as the Hero saving her man’s life, choosing her life partner, going against her father, physically fighting and defeating men in combat, a man crossdressing to get closer to a woman’s heart, and even the undertone of gay erotic love. 

A traditional Indian musical Sāngīt Rāni Nautanki Kā was published in 1882, written by Pandit Khushiram of the town Gurgaon (now Gurugram) in the present Indian state of Haryana. There may have been earlier versions of the story of nautanki before this. The female protagonist’s name  of this musical was Nautanki. This musical was done in the Sāngīt/Svāng performance tradition. The musical of Nautanki became so popular throughout North India in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century that people started to use the term nautanki for the whole sāngīt-svāng performance tradition itself. In other words, the musical of nautanki became emblematic of the whole art form.