Award-winning puppeteer Puran Bhat on making puppets dance

His fingers dance with every movement of his puppets. The brave Rajput ruler Amar Singh Rathor, the dancing girl at the Mughal court, the crafty black magician, all dance to the tune of his buli, a wind instrument.

This is a one-man show. Award-winning puppeteer Puran Bhat sculpts puppets out of wood and cloth, writes his own scripts, composes music and conceptualises the show. He has performed across the country and abroad at major art festivals but he likes it best when there are children in the audience.

“Interacting with children I get new ideas on how to improvise the traditional kathputli show,” he says. Besides, he also trains children of kathputliwalas at his home in Kathputli Colony near Shadipur Bus Depot.

“Kathputli Colony is home not only to puppeteers but also to the Bhopas, Nats, Bhands and other traditional artiste communities. Nowadays, the younger generation is slowly moving away from these professions. I am trying to bring them back to what is their traditional forte. They can continue to take up new professions and simultaneously keep alive traditional art forms by adopting newer methods and stories and by making it contemporary,” says Puran.

Till he was 13, Puran performed with his father, a master puppeteer, but left to join a more lucrative occupation. “I dabbled in theatre, films, serials, paintings, and wood carving for some years. A chance meeting with renowned puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee changed all that. After watching his show, I decided to return to kathputli. In 1982, I left a Rs 3,000-per-month job at a furniture workshop to join the Shri Ram Centre in Delhi at Rs 600 per month,” he says.

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