Abhishek Khedekar Tamasha Dilip Piramal Art Gallery, Mumbai
Tamasha is a docu-fiction photographic project that transforms Abhishek Khedekar’s work in exploring the everyday realities of a Tamasha family collectively known as Lokkalawant—who live and travel across the state of Maharashtra in India.
The artist spent six months travelling with the Tamasha family in 2016 documenting the troupe as part of an academic assignment, immersing himself in their daily lives beyond the stage and spectacle. The project continued to evolve through several additional trips between 2022 and 2023, allowing him to revisit the community and deepen his engagement with their lives and performances.
What began as the artist’s attempt to document a fading performance tradition gradually evolved into a deeper exploration of Tamasha as a metaphor for social hierarchy, visibility, and discrimination through a blend of documentary images and constructed visual narratives.
Commonly perceived as entertainers, the Tamasha family is often faced with persistent social prejudice, economic instability, and a neglect of their basic needs. What Khedekar’s work brings to the fore is the fact that though Tamasha is widely celebrated as a vibrant folk performance tradition, the communities that sustain this age-old art form often live on the margins of society.
