The day-long storytelling festival at Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum will introduce you to stories in the form of spoken word, theatre, art zines and muppet shows
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In u00c2u0080u00c2u0088it's eighth edition, Kahani Karnival at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, allows children to listen to storytellers narrate tales from across the world, watch a muppet show, create an art zine, explore the Museum's Myth Trail, go on a theatrical odyssey and be part of a Hans Christian Andersen dress-up party. "The idea behind the festival is to take stories to children. Stories that take them to places they haven't been, know people and fantastical creatures they've never seen.
Participants at earlier editions of the festival held in Mumbai and Bengaluru
It's to bring alive imagination through various multi-disciplinary art forms," says Shinibali Mitra Saigal, curator and co-founder of Kahani Karnival, a trust that brings stories alive through books, music, art and dance. "Storytelling has evolved over the years. In the sense that you can use any form to carry the tale. It could even be bubbles, like one of our facilitators will be doing. This edition is focused on myths, legends and epics," she adds.
The festival is open to adults and children. Some of the highlights include storyteller Ankit Chadha who will tell tales from across the world including fables from China and tales that are part of an oral tradition from India; a Dastangoi (a 16th Century Urdu oral storytelling art form) retelling of Chitrangada from Mahabharata, a muppet show that is a mash-up of Hans Christian Andersen tales, and an aerial silk performance by children that's connected to mythology. "The biggest challenge is in finding a hook that engages the child. With so much stimulation online and otherwise, how do you get a child to love a story and in turn a book? I feel, in the end, it boils down to a great story that never fails," Saigal sums up.