Kolkata observes World Puppetry Day
Kolkata, Mar 21: One of the most ancient and traditional forms of art, Puppetry is facing extinction but in Kolkata on Wednesday people at Paschimbanga Bangla Academy gathered to enjoy the show a day ahead of the World Puppet Day on March 21.
Arts Illuminates Mankind (AIM), a welfare organization comprising a number of art lovers, observed World Puppet Day in advance and books were released on the occasion.
Five books on art, culture and puppetry were released.
Another old tradition of making alpana, which means creating designs with rice liquid to decorate floors, was chosen as the subject to release books on this occasion.
ROOTS, a wing of AIM, as its first footprints in publishing, brought out five books on these dying but once popular art forms in the presence of Pallab Sengupta, the President of Asiatic Society.
Adibashi Lokkatha, Lokgaan, Alpanar Anganey, Kansa Shilpa and another on Puppetry were released. Dibyojyoti Majumdar, Leena Chaki, Bidhan Biswas and Deepak Biswas are some of the writers.
Pallab Sengupta said: "Being the oldest traditional art form which took its birth almost in the 14th century Puppetry today has been losing its importance and the artists are not in a position to keep alive this heritage fearing their children would not make it their profession or be able to earn a bread."
Aiming to promote this tradition AIM paid special tribute to the Puppetry showcasing its various forms such as in String, Rod and Glove Puppetry by the artists from Midnapore, Nadia and South 24 Parganas where the performers like Basanta Ghorui, Prabhanjan Bairagi or Krishnapada Sarkar performed skits on social problems like girl child education or addictions.
Sonali Chakraborty, Secretary of AIM, said they are trying to make movies to revive the past glory of Puppetry by using it in Kolkata Film Festival for public awareness.