New Delhi: Think of the place where you could enjoy the ‘innocent entertainment' and have your share of laugh which is genuine and triggered by your inner self. Well, Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival 2015 has defined a similar matrix for you!
Staging a platform, which is as ecstatic for the puppeteers around the world as lively and entertaining it is for the audience, ‘Ishara…' is happening at three astounding locations in India Habitat Centre (Delhi), The Epicentre (Gurgaon) and Tagore Theatre (Chandigarh).
“Puppetry is the voice of common people. It is that naïve form of art where people confidently say ‘lie to me',” says Gose Gil who is one of the many puppeteers participating in the festival. Gose whose team comprises of only three people including himself mentions how puppetry has been an eminent part of traditions from several years around the world.
“These dolls that have been shaped by humans express more what we humans can't. They express the tradition, the colours of their culture,” adds Gose who finds his grounds in Portugal where puppetry has been forbidden considering it as a threat to the government.
Further, going ahead with its existence today, the basic norm coming forward is that Puppetry today stands as another form of entertainment for kids. However, puppeteers and the ones associated with the rapid transformation of such cultural mechanism across the globe disagree with this.
Expressing how puppetry has been perceived and how it actually is, Dadi Pudumjee, founder of Ishara International Theatre Trust and President of UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette - International Puppetry Association) says, “It is only in cities that we think puppetry is restrained to kids. The truth is that this form of communication is engaging to both adults and children of all age.”
Fitting more meaning to his words in the similar light, Gose states that “Puppetry is not for kids but is it ‘also' for kids.” With the tradition merging with the boundaries and adding that global essence to it, even puppets are no longer just ‘traditional Rajasthani dolls' in India. But, the paradigm has gone wider and we have kinds in this territory too ranging from glove puppet, shadow puppet, rod puppet, string puppets with the addition of contemporary music, performances, dance and much more.
When asked how can puppetry survive in the world which is getting more and more tech savvy at an unimaginable pace, Pudumjee elaborates that it is not the culture of puppetry that has died but the taste to view it that is hard to find today. “The art hasn't died, the audience has died,” quotes the internationally acclaimed puppeteer.
Reviewing it from a similar tangent, when a mother was asked whether she would prefer a puppet or a video game in the hands of his 5-year-old kid, she firmly says anything that would make his kid feel happier but not at the cost of his innocence.
Puppetry teaches you that life is simple; it broadens the array of ‘living while laughing' and keeping tiny moments of joy with you forever.
