Employing puppets for a powerful talk

In the past, traditional puppet shows were used to convey religious messages in villages. Today, due to the influence of modern communication methods, traditional puppetry is at the crossroads in many states of India with most puppeteers taking to an alternative source of livelihood. However, contemporary puppetry has a tremendous scope in the field of education, entertainment and awareness generation.

After realising its importance, Dr R Bhanumathi decided to use contemporary puppetry as a tool for conveying messages on various environmental and socially relevant topics. “Contemporary puppetry has a huge scope in creating awareness. Who doesn’t like a storytelling performance? And I strongly believe that puppetry is one of the best forms of performance to communicate, especially to children and youth,” she says.

In certain countries, there are degree programmes in puppetry, but in India, it is not even considered seriously. Understanding the potential of this art, she started Pavai Centre for Puppetry to explore the art of puppetry. “Our goal issimple — through regular puppetry classes/workshops in schools, we want to create awareness about various burning issues. We also wanted to preserve traditional puppetry and puppeteers.”

Explaining how she usespuppetry as a tool to address certain tricky issues, she says, “I was very fascinated by the art of puppetry and that’s the reason why I have done my Ph.D. on the status of traditional shadow puppetry and puppeteers of South India. I have used puppets to teach children about sex education and environmental conservation. For example, if I am holding a workshop about various habitats and life forms, I will teach them about the environment and then develop a story out of it. The entire storytelling will turn into a dialogue. All children are not communicative and have different personalities. Even if a child is shy or doesn’t have good communication abilities, puppetry helps them to overcome inhibitions,” says Bhanumathi.

It is a powerful communication aid for people who aren’t very good at dramatics. “Puppets are not merely a means of storytelling,but can bring in major transformations. Using this powerful medium, we can empower people and develop their skills of communication. It can also make for a great therapeutic tool,” she sums up.