As soon as you reach Suprita Moorthy’s house, you are greeted by posters of films, an interesting mix of everything from the Ramayana to Rajkumar hits and Chota Bheem right at the door. They seem to indicate that the owner must be having specials screenings, taking one back to the days of ‘talkies’.
And once you do go in, you realise her idea of talkie-inspired screenings date way back, much before the times of the motion picture, to the days when dolls provided entertainment.
In Suprita’s case, it is the trademark golu that marks the Navratri celebrations in South India.
“Scenes from all these posters are enacted through my dolls. The whole idea is to engage with people across age groups and interests. So when you walk in you can choose the movies you want to watch through the posters. So when you arrive at the golu , you are greeted by the iconic shetty-shetty henthi (merchant couple), who are depicted selling tickets,” she says as she begins her tour of the golu set-up.
Karnataka : Bengaluru : 23/09/2017 : Picture for Metro, Dasara Doll display at Suprita Moorthy house at Banashankari in Bengaluru on 23 Septembaer 2017. Photo : Sudhakara Jain.
“The dolls then take you through the ‘food court’ which is selling everything from South Indian delicacies from idly and dosa to coffee at a Cafe Coffee Day outlet. And then the screenings begin. You have scenes from the Mahabharata, including Krishna’s birth and his Dangal (cue poster) with his evil uncle-king Kamsa, and the Ramayana, featuring Rama’s crowning ceremony ( pattabhishekam ) .”
The golu also depicts scenes Rajkumar’s Bangarada Manushya , Deepika Padukone starrer Piku , the Tamil classic Jallikattu (keeping in mind last year’s protests), scenes from the cricket-themed hit MS Dhoni:The Untold Story , Anant Nag’s comedy hit Ganeshana Maduve, the musical Shankarabharanam , and even a Turkish film.
“I try to work around a different theme every year. Since we have been going the traditional way in the last few years, with last year’s theme revolving around the step wells of Hampi, I wanted to make it more fun and contemporary this year. I think that’s the only way the traditional will survive and cinema is something people across all age groups would relate to,” says Suprita, who is the director of programmes at the India Design Forum.
It took a week for the whole-set up, complete with seven levels of granite steps with extensions on the sides. “I used everything from 300 bricks to my study table to hold up the foundation for the required height. I have used granite instead of the traditional cloth covering because I feel that stone has much more potential. The colour of the granite also blends better with the set-up.”
Karnataka : Bengaluru : 23/09/2017 : Picture for Metro, Dasara Doll display at Suprita Moorthy house at Banashankari in Bengaluru on 23 Septembaer 2017. Photo : Sudhakara Jain.
Sourcing so many dolls was the easiest part of the project for Suprita because three generations of her family have been collecting them, resulting in a massive collection of over 10,000 dolls that Suprita has catalogued and stored in a space under her staircase. “I predominantly use the mud dolls ( mannina bombe) and I curate them based on the scenes I am depicting. Sometimes I also buy new dolls to add to the collection. This year, I traveled across Dharamagiri, Thanjavur, and Pondicherry. I also tried to commission some dolls for the scenes from the Mahabharata, but I have only been able to source bits and pieces which have not come into the market.”
Suprita has observed how the imagination of the artisans has become limited today and one of the main reasons is that they are not being encouraged to enhance or even pass it on to the the next generations. “This is largely because of the middlemen who source the dolls at nominal prices and sell them with exorbitant margins. The money doesn’t reach the artisans. I don’t mind paying more if I know that the money is going to the artisan.”
She even bought some dolls directly from artisans in Puducherry for double their asking price.
On the other hand, she is happy that more people have been buying dolls in the last few years, in comparison to the previous decades when the tradition, especially in Mysuru and Bengaluru, seemed to have diminished.
“The Mysuru gombe (which parallels Tamil Nadu’s golu) tradition is one of the best forms of storytelling. And it’s equally relevant because many children today do not know the stories of the epics or the Panchatantra. Children seem to be losing the art of imagination with all the digital visual content that they are being bombarded with. And the golu or gombe tradition is one of the best ways to keep these stories alive because the dolls offer the visuals as you tell them the stories.” Suprita hopes that more people take up the tradition and understand its relevance. “And I hope they innovate on it. I think it’s always nice to make some traditions more contemporary and relevant to the present day. I hope to depict scenes from modern life in the future.”
