Pulling the Right Strings

SHE may dress in black, but she does not have a mask covering her face, or gloves to make her hands invisible. Twenty-five-year-old Anurupa ...

SHE may dress in black, but she does not have a mask covering her face, or gloves to make her hands invisible. Twenty-five-year-old Anurupa Roy is one of a new breed of urban puppeteers who are experimentative and bold and unwilling to wear the traditional mantle of invisibility.

This enthusiastic bunch is, in fact, responsible for the recent refurbishing of the image of puppetry in the performing arts scenario. Strangely enough, in a country with a 3,000-4,000-year-old history of puppetry one of the oldest forms, shadow puppetry, originated in South India and moved to parts of South-East Asia, it is the non-traditional that is bagging moolah and attention.

8216;8216;Traditional forms of patronage are disappearing,8217;8217; explains Roy. 8216;8216;Puppetry was always a fringe art form. Now we have television and cinema to contend with, unlike in Japan, where national entertainment stars are puppeteers.8217;8217;

For non-traditional puppetry, however, it is boom time. For Roy, 8212; herself inspired by Bunraku, a Japanese style of puppetry which involves small, detailed rod puppets that require several co-manipulators 8212; moving away from the traditional is doing the trick. 8216;8216;Earlier, people associated puppetry only with Rajasthan. Now, as people are seeing new things being done, their expectations are growing,8217;8217; she adds.

In fact, the demand for 8216;interesting8217; seems to be pushing traditional puppeteer toward experimentation as well. 8216;8216;Bardhaman in West Bengal, for instance. Puppeteers there are doing some path-breaking stuff,8217;8217; says Roy. These puppeteers have adapted traditional putul nach literally, dance of the dolls for television shows and educational themes, contemporary-look puppets working both traditional stories and themes like literacy and AIDS.

So what are the new things being done in this medium? 8216;8216;Because puppetry is limitless and encompasses every conceivable art form, it presents endless possibilities,8217;8217; Roy explains. 8216;8216;For artistes like us who are first generation puppeteers and who have taken it up on our own, our skill is an amalgamation of adaptations and personal influences and it produces the most amazingly varied treatments and visuals.8217;8217;

And thanks to new influences and fresh inputs, puppetry is gaining audience with adults. This and puppetry festivals are adding body to the audience. 8216;8216;The first puppetry festival organised in the capital by the India International Centre in 2000 had a small audience. This year it was huge,8217;8217; exclaims an excited Roy.

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As of today, puppetry lacks formal institutions of learning in this country, laments Roy. Like her, all non-traditional puppeteers have to apprentice with an established puppeteer. 8216;8216;But that doesn8217;t teach you everything,8217;8217; says Roy. 8216;8216;We need a permanent puppet theatre that will provide both workshop space and performance space. Working for a couple of months under an established artiste should earn you a diploma. Starting out with a two-year MA degree course is not a solution right now.8217;8217;

The lack of assured employment after a 8216;course8217; puts a question mark on formal training. Kolkata is the only place where training and a job are possible, says Roy, who has trained under Michael Meschke in Marionette Theatre, Stockholm, and Bruno Leone at Scoula Della Guraetelle, Naples.

For now, Roy is happy being manipulated by lady luck and sounds extremely hopeful. 8216;8216;As things go, I think we can safely say that puppetry has a bright future in this country,8217;8217; predicts Roy.