On a string and a prayer

It is a fairly common refrain in culture circles that television is killing traditional Indian art forms. And yet, it might come as a surprise that the resurrection of puppetry, arguably one of the oldest story-telling tropes in the country, can in large part be attributed to the idiot box.

Puppetry as an art form finds early mentions in India’s classical texts. One of the earliest references to puppetry is found in the Tamil classic Silappadikaaram written around the 1st or 2nd century BC. One of India’s greatest grammarians, Patanjali, refers to puppetry in his defining work on Sanskrit grammar, Mahabhasya, as being one of three dramatic genres. The concept of puppetry can also be found in the Bhagvad Gita, one of India’s most revered philosophical treatise that is part of the Mahabharata, which itself is steeped in antiquity.

As other art forms such as drama and dance took stage, live puppetry shows gradually took a back seat; today, it lives on in as a super-specialty of sorts, practised only by a handful, watched by even fewer.

“Even now when we travel in villages, the older people appreciate the art and tell us that they always wait to see us but not a single child sits down and sees the art we perform. After the increase of electronic channels people get to see it on screen whenever they want, there are few people who like to see the live shows,” rues Puran Bhat, a resident of Kathputli Colony—literally, Colony of Puppeteers—in New Delhi.

However, Bhat, who learnt the art when he was 9, insists that the form itself is not dying, just that the viewership has been reduced due to television and cinema.

At the same time, there are those who maintain that puppetry has got a second lease of life, thanks to television.

Call it the Seventies’ puppet equivalent of India’s Got Talent, but one of Mumbai’s oldest and most famous puppets may owe his longevity to TV.

‘Ardhavatrao’, a puppet character created by Yeshwant Keshav Padhye in 1916, and modelled on an eccentric middle-class Marathi man, imagined and created in 1916, might have had a shorter lifespan if it weren’t for TV—he gained a mass following after Doordarshan called Padhye’s son Ramdas in 1972 to do a 15-minute show, giving the puppet his first break on national TV.

“Ardhavatrao became famous in every household after the Doordarshan show was telecast,” admits 70-year-old Ramdas.

On September 24, he opened a new live show—‘Carry on Entertainment—Ramdas Padhye Live’ as a part of Adhavatrao’s centennial birthday celebrations, involving the entire Padhye family, along with 50 puppets and featuring the 40 best acts over the life of the show.

“Ardhavatrao is now the eldest member of our family. Since the beginning, all my puppets were kept in my studio but I always keep ‘Ardhavatrao’ and his wife Awadabai close to me, in my house,” says Padhye.

Another popular Mumbai ventriloquist/puppeteer, Rajkumar Javkar aka Rajarancho owes his much of his recognition to his first break on the comedy show Laughter Challenge. The 39-year-old mimicry artist earlier worked in a water park before he started acting with his puppet ‘Rancho’, again derived from a popular TV detective serial Raja aur Rancho.

“Ventriloquism is not that popular in India like it is in foreign countries. Television is the best medium to make this art popular but it depends upon the artist’s act and different elements which he uses to make the act entertained,” Rajkumar says.

Puppetry has also found more cross-genre usage, helping it stay alive and relevant.

Mumbai-based self-taught puppeteer Usha Venkatraman, 55, started using puppets to make children understand Indian classical music. In the beginning, Venkatraman used glove puppets since they were easier to manipulate. But after few years, when she saw paper bag puppets in a festival, she got in touch with the Rajasthan-based artist to customise the puppets for her.

“Just by movement, puppets can express themselves. It is a narrative prop to make people understand any story. Besides classical music’s melody and rhythm, I started narrating Indian mythology to the school’s students,” said Venkatraman, who is a trained singer herself.

Venkatraman is also helping to revive the art by helping corporates and college students. For the former, she organises motivational seminars using paper bag puppets. According to her, during these sessions, the puppets’ expressions helps working professionals open up their alter ego, while it helps college students present their presentations in a unique way.

Lack of support 

“India has more than 400 types of puppeteers and most of them have died mainly because it was passed down through generations and the new generation wants to stay in the cities for better jobs,” says Shaizia Manekshaw, who conducts puppetry workshops in Mumbai. 

“The government’s role is minimal and marginal because only a few of these forms are promoted while many traditional forms did not get proper funding and the authorities do not have knowledge of where they are and how to help these artists.” 

Her views are echoed by Anurupa Roy, a member of the  de la Marionnette (UNIMA India), who points out that the government has few funds for puppetry due to a lack of knowledge at the grassroots level. “They don’t have proper information about where the families stay in different corners of the country. There is no survey to see the next generations of the puppeter’s family.”

“In every state the condition of puppet art different. At present in Kerala shadow puppet tradition is doing very well.  In Tamil Nadu, the leather shadow puppets are not in a good situation because there is just one family left because the traditional and ritual context is gone,” points out Roy. 

“In Andhra Pradesh, they have tourism and export industry which buys the puppets. It has become the artefact industry. In some states they have a really good condition while in some states it’s really bad. In Odisha, the condition is not good because there is a problem of poverty but some young generations are modernising it. In West Bengal, it is decreasing because of the quality of the show has fallen. They use Tollywood music because of which the puppet shows lost its vibrant,” she adds.

But Manekshaw also adds that despite old puppet forms dying out, there’s lots happening on the contemporary puppetry scene.

Charting new paths

Some, for example, are keeping the tradition alive not just by making puppets but extending puppet-inspired designs to other handicraft products.

In Andhra Pradesh, for example, the Ramayana and Mahabharata were narrated through leather puppets also known as ‘Tholu Bommalata’. These puppets were earlier made up of deerskin that has now been replaced by goatskin due to its easier availability. Each of the 60 households of Nimmalakunta village in Anantapur district have at least one leather puppet-maker. These artists can make leather puppets anywhere between 15 inches and 7 feet tall. The characters are driven by scripts and demands during the festival season.

Over the past few years, as demand for live shows has fallen, they have branched out to alternative ways to showcase their art.

“Due to TV, there has been decrease in the number of puppet shows since late 90s. Rather than making puppets, we prefer making the art on handicraft materials since it gives us income. Designers from different NGOs come here to teach us various designs which are more in demand in the market,” says 48-year-old Rammana Garu.

“We participate in different exhibitions conducted by government and NGOs. Through this we get orders to customize puppets for our customers and reach out to different people,” he added.

Puppetry is also critical in keeping another art form alive—balladeering. The traditional music is also passed on from one generation to another. “We create our own techniques rather than updating ourselves from others. While we do the puppet manipulation work, we think how it can be done in a different way depending upon the scripts,” says Bhat, who writes his own script and make his own puppets.

“We not only learn to make the puppets but also the music and songs from our elders,” says Ramanna. “When as a child we involve with our family members to make a puppet or during the show, we get to learn from them about the technique of manipulation, dance form while performing the shows, music and songs too. It is in our genes.”