Description

he enigmatic charm of masks fascinated me when I was young and impressionable. The formal education I had, however, gave me the impression that masks should be hated since they are emblems of lies and of wickedness and seduction besides being instruments of man's surrender to the forces of instinct and sorcery. My childhood las-cination for masks came back with a renewed gleam of interest when I first watched a show of Seraikela Chhau dances sometime in the late fifties. I felt that the performance was taking fantasy to great aesthetic heights only because the dancer-actors were wear-ing beautifully crafted masks. For the first time it occured to me that a mask can be a wonderful work of art as well as a powerful theatrical symbol.

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