Venue: Abhimanch Auditorium, National School of Drama

Bharat Rang Mahotsav, the winter theatre carnival organised by NSD, provides a wide gamut of forms that may qualify as theatre. Puppetry, as a form of theatre, has a long history in India. Some form of puppetry is practised in most regions – from Rajasthan in the north till Kerala down south.  Hence, having a puppet theatre program is quite in order.

However, based on the rich legacy of puppetry that we already have, and the great work done by many contemporary puppet groups, Doll’s Theatre of Kolkata dissappointed us.

1. The various pieces were meant for entertainment of children. Given that the show was at 8.30 p.m. on a winter week night, we did not expect such a contrived approach. Puppetry has long moved away from being a mode of recreation only for kids. Contemporary puppet theatre, as well as traditional theatre, has depicted stories / themes for mature audience.
2. The focus seemed to be only on the looks of the puppets. While the puppets looked nice, their actions did not coordinate with the background score (e.g. – birds jumping on a tabla – the sound would come before the action).
3. In the last act, they has a person who assayed the role of a hunter, while the other characters were depicted by puppets. Given that the complete performance was puppet theatre, this guy stood out as a soar thumb.
4. They had a super long intro about the group. This is repetitive since they are introduced on the website as well as the brochure. We did not come across any other group doing this.

This could be a suitable program for a junior school concert. But given the fantastic standard that we get to see at Bharat Rang Mahotsav, this was practically without a soul.

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