Page 54 - June2018

q&A

dAdI Pudumjee
IndIa’s master puppeteer
A Puppeteer’s

Quest

IndIA’s leAdIng platform for Indian and as well. Muppets, made famous by Jim adventures of Vikram and Betaal, into
international puppetry, the Ishara Puppet Henson and string puppets in Karnataka. a puppetry format.
Theatre recently celebrated its thirtieth Essentially, the technique depends on the Every story has to be adapted to the me-
anniversary. On this occasion, neha kirpal in puppeteer or puppet maker and the kind dium. We do not have people in India
an interaction with its founder dadi Pudumjee of story the puppet will play. who understand or write only for puppet
talks about his immense contribution to the theatre. I use the visual language first — a
art through his almost four-decade long Your puppetry goes beyond the synopsis of actions, events and drama in
journey as India’s master puppeteer. usual string and hand-puppets to the theme and then follow the script. I also
“semi-sculptural puppets” attached use a recorded poem or narration. One of
edited excerpts from an interview • to actors’ bodies and carried across our major scripted plays is ‘Heer Ke Waris’,
stage. Tell us more about this medium. written by Mahip Singh. We showed ‘Gone
Puppetry styles range from simple There was a blurb for a performance we Grandmother’ by Chatura Rao in our fes-
rod puppets to larger-than-life figures. had based on the Vetalpanchvinasati or tival in February. Puppets do not need
Tell us briefly about the different Vikram-Betaal cycle of stories and Thomas long spoken text lines. They must emote
styles. Maans’ continuum of the same transposed through their movement, manipulation
There are basically four styles or tech- heads. We used large torso figures of pup- and actions to synergise with spoken text.
niques- string puppets, which are sus- pets attached to the puppeteers’ waist with Music can also be text as it is in many of my
pended from above, rod puppets which rods attached to the puppeteers’ heads performances.
are held from behind the puppet or below, and rods on the arms for movement. This
glove puppets are worn on the palm of style was used in our performance trans- Ishara creates puppet events, conducts
one’s hand and shadow puppets are pro- position based on the above stories, as the workshops and performances on social
jected on a surface. Traditionally we used archetypes were puppets and their inner awareness themes. Tell us about some
cut out from leather for shadow puppets voices were human dancers. I had also of your recent events and what to look
but these days these days card, acetate used this technique in the early 1980s at forward to.
and other materials are also used. Besides the Sutradhar Puppet Theatre at the Shri We do a lot of workshops for students,
those mentioned, processional figures Ram Centre, New Delhi in a performance teachers and adults. We conducted a
could be effigies or giant puppets moved of the Ramayan. workshop through SPICMACY for almost
by rods or worn by the puppeteer. Mixed 90 participants. In August, we could have
media is a mix of techniques using a com- Tell us about the challenges involved a workshop on creating elephant puppets
bination of actors, objects, masks, dance, in adapting traditional Indian theatre, using shadow or other techniques. We
etc. There are many hybrid techniques like the story of Ram and Sita or the cross the bridge as per the requirements

Tehelka / 15 june 2018 54 www.Tehelka.com

54-55 Q&A Neha Kirpal.indd 2 06/06/18 1:28 PM