Dadi Pudumjee delivers a talk. Picture by Badrika Nath Da

Cuttack, May 26: Dadi Pudumjee, a leading puppeteer, delivered a talk on puppets and puppetry at the Spicmacay programme at Ravenshaw University.

“Puppets are an illusion,” said Pudumjee, adding, “And performers have to become tuned in to the movements of the puppets through rigorous practice to infuse life into a dead object and make it look natural.”

Pudumjee tried to educate a number of participants through an interactive Powerpoint presentation on the history of Indian puppetry that dates back to the 5th century.

At that time, puppetry was based on religious and historical themes as well as stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata. Even today, a large chunk of the puppet shows are centred on these themes, besides a number of social themes. Usually, puppets are controlled in four different ways — string, glove, shadow and rod — and these are cashing in on popularity in a number of states including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Maharastra, Orissa, Karnataka, Kerela and Tamil Nadu.

“Puppets are an illusion and it takes a great deal of practice to make the puppets come alive before the audience.

“Moreover, puppets can portray feelings and emotions that are difficult for humans to express on stage,” said Pudumjee.

According to the veteran puppeteer, traditional puppets, including shadow puppets, have undergone a sea change. A lot of creativity is now involved in creating a puppet using waste items such as plastic bottles and cans.

Similarly, these days there is an extensive use of colour and rich costumes, which makes the puppets livelier.

“It all started as a hobby and making a living out of any art form is not easy to sustain. However, it is good to see that a number of youths are now coming forward to keep the art alive in the country,” said Pudumjee.

Pudumjee, who is the founder of Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, has conducted several workshops and attended three conventions of Spicmacay to promote the art of puppetry.

Later, he also demonstrated ways to manoeuvre objects such as shoes, bags and so on. According to him, any object in real life can be animated and made to talk through movements.

“Though puppets are interesting, I never thought that it could be so much fun to see how an object could be used to express feelings,” said Samir Kothari, a Class X student from Delhi Public School, Pune.