One of the most iconic memories, for those who grew up in the 90s would be the music video of Falguni Pathak’s song ‘Maine Payal Hai Chhankai’ with a romantic tale told through marionettes.
The marionette tradition, where puppets are controlled by strings or wire, has continued to evolve beyond sugary pop and Kathputli, the traditional Indian puppet theatre form.
Bengaluru-based PuppeTree is spearheading a movement for the marionette with a series of performances, ‘Some Some Story – A Marionette Puppet Show’ that, it promises, will take audiences to ‘a magical world away from your squeaky gadgets’.
“We have two different items in the performance — the first deals with the connection between man and nature and the other is about the younger generation’s addiction to gadgets and how it has changed their lives,” describes Anvitha Prakash, founder-director, PuppeTree.
“There is hardly anyone doing marionette shows any more, and they are deeply interesting to work with. You can include so much detail in their expressions, or their costumes. You cannot delve into such intricacies in other forms of puppet theatre, such as shadow puppetry.” The performance features no dialogues and is set to mood-based music.
“We didn’t include any dialogue or language because we want to reach out to more people. The minute I say that the performance will be set in a particular language, it automatically restricts the audience demographic. Right now the play can be watched and understood by anyone from a two year-old to a 90-year-old,” she explains.
“We are doing something new and we didn’t want it to be restricted by the barrier of language.”
The performance also features elaborate sets, all done in miniature, customised to the size of and the characters played by the puppets.
“The performances are largely targeted towards children, who will be able to relate to strong imagery of nature featuring clouds, rainfall and other magical elements. Since it is meant for children, parents will also, naturally be involved and we want to do something for them as well. The theme of gadget-addiction is something most parents relate to,” she explains.
Anvitha believes puppet theatre, especially with marionettes, is one of the strongest forms of storytelling.
“Traditional forms of puppet theatre, such as the Kathputli, revolve around Indian epics or folk tales, but we are one of the only groups to showcase contemporary themes. Our audiences have shared that our characters are highly relatable and even resemble their close ones.”
The performance been choreographed and designed from scratch, by Anvitha and her team.
“I write the story and once we finalise it, we decide on the characters. The puppets are made around the characters. We first design them with their expressions, hand gestures and outfits and then make them out of fibre and sometimes, wood. After that we hand stitch the costumes and attach the strings. Finally, we fix over 12 strings for each puppet along with the handle, to enable movement.”
‘Some Some Story – A Marionette Puppet Show’, will be performed by Anvitha Prakash, Anup Simha, Sharada Murthy and Sindhu Bhaskaram at Shoonya - Centre for Art and Somatic Practices on July 28 and 29. For details, call 077608 32226.
