Puppetry has played a major role in the social development of the State, but the art form and its practitioners rarely get any recognition or encouragement from the authorities, master puppeteers have said.
Artistes representing around 30 puppetry groups in the State gathered in Kozhikode on Sunday to observe World Puppetry Day, when the foundation for a puppetry academy was laid. The academy is aimed at bringing different streams of puppetry prevalent in Kerala on a single platform.
“There are less than 100 puppeteers in the State. The traditional forms of puppetry are getting endangered due to lack of new practitioners,” said P.N. Parameshwaran, Secretary of Kerala Educational Puppet Theatre.
The puppeteers urged the government to establish a puppetry training centre in Palakkad, the centre of traditional puppetry in the State, on the lines of the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) in New Delhi, and to set up a museum to introduce the younger generation to the art form.
“Modern puppetry is widely used these days for educational purposes and social campaigns. However, the traditional one still depends on the four months of temple festivals when it is often performed as a ritualistic art form,” they said.
Five streams
Tholpavakkoothu (leather puppetry), nokkuvidya pavakali, charadu pavakali (string puppetry), pavakathakali (puppet Kathakali), and Yakshagana puppetry are the five streams of puppetry practised in the State. Most of the existing puppetry groups are from Palakkad, while a few are from Kozhikode, Pathanamthitta and Kasaragod districts.
The get-together was opened by T.P. Kunjiraman, a proponent of the modern stream of puppetry from Vadakara, Kozhikode. A seminar on ‘Possibilities of puppetry in the State’ was held. Five teams from different parts of the State presented their respective streams of puppetry on the occasion.
