Personality

PERSONALITY: Telling Her Story through Puppetry

A charming persona S. Seethalakshmi’s passion for her art shines through her eyes as she talks about her wonderful relation with her art.

I began my journey in life, when at the age of three I was fascinated by this art. My maternal uncle M.V. Ramanamurthy, who founded a school of puppetry in Kakinada, in Andhra, sowed the first seed of this art in my mind. Later, my special interest in puppetry was fed by my mother who had taken a keen interest to ensure that I got the best learning in artistic pursuits.

Since I was the only girl among my first three brothers, I took this to my advantage and evinced great inclination towards it. When at the age of nine, I was performing a show, along with my Uncle at the Island Grounds, Mrs. YGP and Dr. Raghavan, spotted my talent and from then on it has been a flow of work for me.

Next came an offer to me by Dr. Nayudama, the leather technologist who was with the Central Leather Research Institute. He started the puppetry division with the CLRI, and gave me the job to carry it forward. And thus with CLRI started my career spanning through five-decades with this beautiful form of art.

Since this Indian form uses not original puppets but their shadows - in black and white or in colour. The flat figures, usually made of leather, are lightly pressed on some translucent screen with a strong source of light behind. The screen in India is a simple sheet stretched on an adjustable frame. The screen thus forms the barrier

between the audience and the puppet, creating the projection of image. The impact on the audience, surrounded by darkness all around, is quite dramatic.

Once with CRLI, we innovated the way in which we made leather, which served the purpose of disposing leather waste as well as providing cheap parchment leather.

Thus my maternal uncle who is also my mentor encouraged me and together with CLRI have tremendously shaped my career and helped me achieve what I am today. I retired from CLRI in 2006, but I continue to conduct workshops, recently being at the Dakshin Chitra, where I conduct workshop for visitors on every weekend. Whilst my visit to her home in Jan, she was busy with hundreds of puppets for a festival to be hosted in September.

One continues to listen, as Seethalakshmi weaves magical tales about her puppetry. She vividly remembers her experience in Iran. Her facial expression fills with an awe and she manages to pass down a bit of it to me, when she describes the appreciation Iranians showed towards her troupe for the story about Ramayana’s epic – how Hanuman goes in search of Seethe. She brings to my notice a magazine released by Iran’s Mubarak Festival- 2005, which records S.Sethalakshmi’s show among others in it.

My family has been my biggest strength, declares the Silken Andhra, a title by which Andhraites call her in San Francisco – where she has conducted her show, apart from in New Jersey, New York, Washington D.C. and Florida. She tells me about how they were applauded at the Austrian Art Event when their three-member team had put up Ramayana’s story consisting of 65 puppets. That day they had received a standing ovation.

S. Seethalakshmi’s two granddaughters share a similar feeling with their grandmother. I along with my younger sister Madhumika have assisted her in many local events through recent years. The work of ensuring that puppets flow in a smooth manner is of meticulous task, but grandma has never lost her rhythm of mind while working on this – says Priyanka, the elder granddaughter.

Having taken my puppet show from village to village in northern Tamilnadu, I have ventured on a 365 day expedition with my puppets for LIC, staging 100 shows on the way. I along with others came up with an interesting story for them under the title – ‘Theringa Gunda Nambu’ – know and believe. The setting is of two windows. A Jharoka – peek into two different worlds portrayed by two windows that can be seen by the audience. At one window is a poor rickshaw wallah. And at the other is a well-dressed gentleman. The poor rickshaw wallah’s family is in misery. Too many problems they face, he has many kids and little food or clothing to offer them. On the other hand, the gentleman having two children, is able to offer them good food and clothes to wear, and lives a fairly decent life. It is the family planning scheme that has ensured smooth flow to the gentleman’s life. This simple script, tells Seethalakshmi, triggered tremendous reaction from the rural folk.

Another creative output was when for Delhi Bal Bhavan’s Event in Hyderabad, they asked me to come up with a script that in three minutes would reach out with a message to the children. The story was – two best friends – one girl and one boy studying together at school. Together they come across a horse. On one side the horse is black. And on the other side the horse is white. Since both are standing in two different directions, they are able to see only one side at a time. They argue with each other for long. Finally they decide to call their Grandpa to give them a final verdict. Grandpa who has seen the white side facing towards girl’s side, is amazed when he moves to the boy’s side, to find it black there. Finally, he comes to a conclusion. The moral that the story contained was about giving respect to whatelders say. Seethalakshmi shares this anecdote with much excitement, as she had come up with this three minute story at a very short notice.

The task of telling a story through puppet requires detailing. Preparing the script, adding music and voice-over to it, giving shape to the leather, and adding color to it, for example a medium sized Rama’s image for Ramayana’s story can take upto two days. and then finally deciding how to manipulate the puppet on-screen - it is a work demanding patience and care. But a process which is enjoyable, as I love the work that it involves, says Seethalakhmi.

Though procuring the leather is a task, tells me Seethalakshmi. The leather she gets most of the time from her village in Andhra, but sometimes also gets it from the leather tanneries in Chromepet. She allows me to feel the texture of leather, as she moves on to say how this leather is then cut into a thinner sheet to make it more workable.

This is a 2000 year old art, and though it is dying now Seethalakshmi takes great pride when she shows me the different artifacts that she has created with her talent. Among others, she shows me a wooden screen that is something very close to her heart, depicting the story of Ramayana.

Having taken her art to more than 65 countries around the world, this 64-year old says she loves her art, and feels that the challenges it involves can be overcome. With a never ending family support, her passion for her puppetry continues to grow with each passing day.