The memories of childhood have been replaced by life-like anime which have edged out the antics of muppets on Sesame Street and the crafty story-telling skills of Potli baba aired on Doordarshan. An art form which possibly originated in India and China, puppetry is enjoyed by few and practised by just a handful of artists in the country. A chance lead and a quick trip to India in search of its women puppeteers – the teller of modern tales – brought British filmmaker Vicky hart to Hyderabad. “Bringing alive the heritage associated with the art and showcasing one of the ancient methods of communication at community level is the objective of my project,” says Vicky who is currently filming her second documentary, Magic In Our Hands in the city.
After chronicling the hardships faced by puppeteers in Myanmar in her first film, Master of Puppets in 2012, Vicky Hart made her way to India to showcase the few women puppeteers in the country who address social issues through the medium. “I was looking for women who are using this form as a modern story-telling tool. I was steered to India by Claudia Orenstein, associate professor at Hunter College, City University of New York who had presented a dissertation on women puppeteers in the country. I could meet only four of the six I had short-listed and I zeroed in on Padmini Rangarajan of Sphoorthi Theatre for Educational Puppetry, Arts and Crafts (STEPAC),” says Vicky who started filming the work of the group in February 2013.
“The message on e-waste is something Padmini work with and I believe that a lot of first world countries which are major producers of e-waste ship it over to countries such as India and wash their hands off it. I will also talk to traditional puppeteers from Ammapuram in order to know more about the financial trouble they face,” adds Vicky about the self-funded project.
The subject of the documentary film, Padmini Rangarajan, started her journey as a puppeteer in 2003 to play with her son who was in kindergarten. “I made a monkey puppet and would tell him stories. One day he told this to his teacher who invited me for a puppet show. I decided to establish a theatre group in 2005 and create puppets out of waste include foam and other packing material,” says the part-time research associate who is studying the dying art of Ammapuram puppeteers. “It is unfortunate that traditionally, women are not allowed to touch manipulate the puppets or carve them – based on the belief that a woman’s body is impure during menstruation. However, the present generation uses around 150 year old puppets as they have forgotten the craft of carving puppets,” says Padmini. Her shows focus on relevant issues such as sexual harassment and suicidal tendencies among teenagers apart from generating awareness about mobile e-waste.
“We plan to wind up the editing by the end of this year. The Indian Embassy in UK has also expressed interest,” signed off Vicky Hart.