PALAKKAD: Want to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah campaigning for an NDA candidate contesting the local body poll? How about Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi or Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala seeking votes for their party’s candidates?Just head to Shoranur in Palakkad, where puppets of the political leaders are busy seeking votes for candidates of various parties.
Shadow puppetry, the traditional art form that was once confined to the ‘koothumadom’ of temples before diversifying to imbibe stories from other religions and also create awareness on relevant topics, is now being used as a campaign tool.A number of candidates have approached artists engaged in shadow puppetry to convey election promises and messages through the art form.
“In the local body polls, we have catered to around 40 candidates of various parties. A script is written in consultation with the candidate. As the puppet moves through public space soliciting votes, the background visual changes depending on the area – whether it is a town or rural landscape,” said K K Ramachandra Pulavar, a well-known puppetry artist and recipient of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi award as well as the Rashtrapati Puraskar from Sangeet Natak Akademi under the Ministry of Culture.
Depending on the candidate and the party, puppets of Modi, Shah, Pinarayi, Rahul, Oommen Chandy and Chennithala are displayed in the background, said Rajeev Pulavar, Ramachandra’s son who manages Shadow Puppetry Kalakendram in Kavalapara, Shoranur. He is the recipient of Ustad Bismillah Khan award from Sangeetha Nataka Academy. “For each candidate, we also incorporate State Election Commission’s guidelines on the need to observe Covid protocol during voting,” he said.
The candidate’s campaign trail using puppets is uploaded and shared on social media. Songs calling on voters to vote for a candidate are accompanied with the arrival of leaders of the candidate’s party and its symbol and flag.Puppetry artists like Rahul Pulavar, K Sanju, M Manoj, Vijayakrishna and Lalu Krishna have also uploaded around 40 videos each. “Our aim is to revive the art form which is in crisis. There were no programmes for several months owing to Covid,” said Ramachandra.