A melange of puppetry forms

Sphoorthi Theatre for Educational Puppetry, Art and Craft (STEPARC) in association with the Department of Culture, Government of Telangana organised ‘Sri Ramanujacharya Sahasrabdhi’ with the rendition of sri Ramanuja Vaibhavam through a masterly display of ‘Tolu Bommalata’ (leather puppetry) and ‘Koyya Bommalata’ (wooden puppetry) at Ravindra Bharathi.

Speaking on the occasion Prof. Ghanta Chakrapani, chairman Telangana State Public Service Commission lauded the efforts of Padmini Rangarajan, Founder STEPARC, in the effort to integrate two forms of puppetry and bring out this production.

Swami Shitikanthananda of Ramakrishna Math spoke about the importance of Ramanuja’s philosophy in service to society while Prof. SV Satyanarayana, vice-chancellor of Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University announced about the need to protect this rich form of Telangana puppetry by conducting workshops at the University in near future.

Mamidi Harikrishna, director, Department of Culture expressed a thought that puppetry could also be identified as the inspiration behind the modern-day video games considering the similar hand movements and state of mind involved in both activities.

The puppet show depicted the thoughts of Ramanuja in integrating the society without any distinction of caste or creed. Ramanuja felt that it was very important for every human being to get an opportunity for attaining eternal bliss. Kindness, affection and compassion were the ideals that Ramanuja followed in his service to mankind and the downtrodden.

It was nice to see many young participants of a recently conducted puppet workshop independently handling all the wooden puppets and leather puppets. Sphoorthi Theatre has over a period of time also developed resource expertise in the making of customised finger puppets, stick puppets, hand puppets, glove puppets and shadow puppets.

By Jaywant Naidu