Mediating the Sacred: Tradition and Adaptations in Shadow Puppetry of Kerala

Rahul Koonathara*

Abstract

This paper explores the evolution of tholpavakoothu, a traditional Kerala shadow puppet play, historically performed as a ritual offering to the mother goddess Bhadrakali during the festive season of January to May every year. Modernism has influenced the puppet practitioners to continuously reinterpret and remediate the traditional elements through contemporary narratives. Adaptations have created tholpavakoothu to accommodate tradition and contemporary performances hand in hand. The autoethnographic methodology used in this paper will facilitate an exploration of the transformation of tholpavakoothu from an emic perspective to understand the transformations. This paper underscores the significance of adaptability and creativity in transmitting cultural heritage, offering insights into how a folk traditional art form of puppetry deals with hybrid puppetry performances. The approaches employed to revitalize tholpavakoothu can be considered a workable model which can be applied to similar shadow puppet traditions worldwide.

Keywords: tholpavakoothu, adaptation, Shadow puppetry, tradition, modernity, puppetry

Introduction

This paper exposes the evolutionary transferences in tholpavakoothu, the traditional shadow puppetry of Kerala, focusing on how it moves between traditional and modern storytelling, navigating the space between ritual heritage and digital innovation to reflect the tensions that develop at the intersection of the traditional and modern. In the twentieth century, puppeteers of Kerala, despite lacking proficiency in foreign languages, actively engaged in self-reflective practices to comprehend and adapt new narratives with traditional dramaturgy into contemporary modes of puppet play production. Specifically, the first contemporary adaptation which is Gandhikoothu innovated by the puppet company Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre headed by Ramachandra Pulavar and Rajeev Pulavar are theorized as ritual continuity and performative reinvention. For these practitioners, these modern adaptations are considered a form of expressions of their ongoing struggles to create a balance between traditional and post-traditional (Cohen 178) performances in the present century. Adaptability in tholpavakoothu have refined the modern puppetry form without changing the visual aesthetics of tradition. Gandhikoothu stands as a pioneering experiment that breathes life into idealized representations of Indian freedom fighters.

This paper argues that for shadow puppetry of Kerala to endure and evolve, it must engage in an ongoing, reflexive dialogue with the community, validating the form not as a static tradition but as a resilient cultural practice shaped by continual negotiation. Central to this modernity process is the tension experienced by the art form and its practitioners as they navigate between preservation and adaptation. The central question arises in this reflexive dialogue: How is the tradition constructed? Who participates in cultural negotiation? How do embodied indigenous knowledge systems operate, considering traditional and modern performances? By foregrounding this tension, the paper asserts that shadow puppetry is a living tradition sustained through reciprocal and, at times, contested engagement with its sociocultural context.

The complex interplay between tradition, modernity, and community engagement forms the focal point of my investigation into the intersection of traditional shadow puppetry and the digital world. Stephen Kaplin addresses the dynamic relationship of tradition and modernity: “As the physical distance between the performer and the object widens, the amount of technology needed to bridge the gap increases” (33). Through the technique of contemporary experiments, the tholpavakoothu puppeteer is blurring the boundaries between the physical presence of the puppet and puppeteer, to an advantage for shadow puppetry: traditionally, the audience is not visible to puppeteers similarly when the paradigmatic shift is initiated through new media that consideration for the audience is not making a difference. This paper takes for its case study two productions, Gandhikoothu (2006) and Mindi Meetam (2021) that allow us to trace the trajectory of modernization in tholpavakoothu and to understand the shift in form and aesthetics from the earliest modern production to the most recent.

(left) Rajeev Pulavar, Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, Rajitha Ramachandra Pulavar, and Rahul Koonathara painting the traditional shadow puppets at Krishnan Kutty Pulavar Memorial Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre. Photo: Supriya Vengoor

Adaptation and Appropriation in Tholpavakoothu

When I discuss adaptation, I mean the re-presentation of content across media and contexts: a work is performed again, but with new characteristics suited to the new platform or audience. According to Linda Hutecheon’s perspective, adaptation is commonly understood as the transfer or transformation of material across media, also adaptations reproduce an existing text in a new form by remediating the semiotic aesthetics and communicative strategies of the original form (8).

Rahul Koonathara and his elder brother Rajeev Pulavar manipulating traditional dancers in front of oil lamps for a traditional performance. Photo: Fred Eversmann

Salil Singh, director of the documentary Borrowed Fire that traces the life history of Krishnan Kutty Pulavar, has highlighted how the situation of tholpavakoothu from early 1980s when the form began to lose its popularity. During that time, audience numbers declined sharply as the proliferation of television and other forms of mass media reshaped cultural practices and diverted younger generations away from temple based ritual performances. Furthermore, the demanding performance format often extending throughout the entire night posed challenges for audiences who increasingly sought shorter and more accessible forms of entertainment. Krishnan Kutty Pulavar, a traditional shadow puppeteer and cultural revivalist, redefined the form by breaking its confinement within temple ritual performances and reimagining it for secular and cultural venues. This transformation was catalyzed through his collaboration with theatre scholar and performer G. Venu, founder of Natanakairali, Thrissur. Together, they initiated a series of tours that brought tholpavakoothu particularly Ramayana episodes into national and international performance venues which also demonstrates how collaborative interventions between traditional custodians and contemporary theatre practitioners could generate new modalities of survival and reinvention for endangered performance traditions. The state of tholpavakoothu in this period is perhaps best indicated by the body of active practitioners. According to Stuart Blackburn,

Forty puppeteers were reported to be active in 1982, of whom only twenty-five still performed in 1989, and many of them were too feeble to chant through the night. Over the five-year span of my research, three puppeteers died and one retired from illness, but not a single new man entered the drama-house (238).

Blackburn observes a significant decline in performers, which underscores the vulnerability of tholpavakoothu in the late twentieth century and it would help us to understand how in the twenty first century these adaptations revitalized the tradition.

Tholpavakoothu traditional performances run from dusk till dawn, following other popular events such as classical dances, theatrical performances, pop music concerts, and elite art forms which contributed to the decline of the artform. Tholpavakoothu traditional shadow puppets were created using deer hide, buffalo hide, and goat hide and practitioners consider their ritual performances a blessed experience, likening their role to a priest inside a temple during the performance (Koonathara and Sankar 163). Consequently, for example, performances of the epic kamparamayanam adapted for tholpavakoothu performances are governed by a set of codes and structures performed only in the goddess temple for 7, 14, 21, 41, and 71 consecutive nights. Accordingly, puppeteers have shifted away from these more highly traditional performances to contemporary productions because of the decline in acceptance and duration of the form. The shift to Gandhikoothu or any contemporary tholpavakoothu production has resulted in potential alterations thus elucidating the form by abstraction, intercultural dialogues, authenticity, and question of modernity (Atul and Koonathara 47).

Abstraction is visible in the way epic narratives, once performed across multiple nights in ritual settings, are now condensed into shorter, symbolically charged episodes that make the form more accessible to contemporary audiences. At the same time, these productions exemplify intercultural dialogue, as puppeteers experiment with new musical compositions, multimedia technologies, and collaborations with contemporary theatre artists, creating a hybrid aesthetic that connects local ritual practice with global performance languages and dramaturgy. Such innovations, however, provoke debates about authenticity: while secular and international stagings have revitalized interest, they also challenge assumptions that tholpavakoothu derives its legitimacy solely from its temple-based ritual context and complete recitation of the Kamba Ramayana.

My family home in Koonathara village became an important site for the modernization of tholpavakoothu, instrumental in both training ground for artists and the base of the first company to develop and stage contemporary productions.

Despite hearing about the struggles faced by tholpavakoothu, I didn’t fully grasp the seriousness of these issues at that time: a lack of appreciation from temples and low income, often leading to financial difficulties. I observed that my father, Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, met these challenges and criticisms with silence an approach that should be understood not as passivity but as a conscious refusal to respond to criticism in direct or confrontational terms. This approach proved transformative, within a decade, all traditional shadow puppeteers in Kerala, who had once criticized him, adopted his methods and emulated his style of presentations.

Ramachandra Pulavar’s performances stand out as exemplary efforts to experiment contemporary narratives as part of a tholpavakoothu revival strategy, but it is generally true that many performances following the steepest period of decline in the 1980s demonstrates a willingness to adapt new elements contributes to the adaptation process. The revival strategy of tholpavakoothu puppeteers came into action by the first contemporary narrative adaptation titled as Gandhi Koothu, which debuted in 2006 by Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre directed by Ramachandra Pulavar (Koonathara 13).

Adaptations encompass the potential for human, cultural, and biological adjustments for survival, artistic transformation as seen in tholpavakoothu where rigorous training from childhood instills mastery in the artform and cultivates flexibility needed to reshape its dialogue with shifting cultural contexts. Adaptation extends beyond the mythological and theological activities within a socio-scientific framework, particularly in adapting narratives and images by translating the iconography of traditional puppets themselves. For instance, episodes from Ramayana are condensed for contemporary audiences or selective scenes like Rama’s exile or Ravana’s downfall to resonate with present day moral or political concerns. Similarly, puppet designs once confined to canonical forms, have been modified to incorporate stylistic innovations to reference contemporary figures. In some experimental performances, new characters and motifs have been introduced to comment on environmental issues or social justice debates, thereby extending the mythological narrative into modern socio-scientific discourses. Thus, what is being adapted are not only ritualized stories and sacred images but also the very symbolic vocabulary through which the tradition communicates meaning.

Puppeteers committed to preserving mythological and theological narratives as a core component of their belief system regard the adaptive performance of contemporary stories as a moral duty to continue their ancestral legacy. This internal motivation sustains the puppeteer’s engagement with the adaptation process and reinforces the continuity of tradition across changing cultural contexts.

From left Rahul Koonathara holding a deer puppet, Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar holding a hanuman (monkey) puppet and Rajeev Pulavar holding a dancing character. Photo: Fred Eversmann

In the postmodern era, avant-garde movements became prominent across various cultural traditions globally, significantly influencing Indian shadow puppetry. The twentieth century is marked as a new chapter for puppetry traditions, specifically shadow puppetry, with Krishnan Kutty Pulavar, a celebrated figure and national awardee from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, in 1985, leading the charge. In 1971, Krishnan Kutty Pulavar and G Venu introduced tholpavakoothu at the Kerala Maha Sammelanam in a non-traditional context, igniting a pivotal shift in the art form’s trajectory. This non-traditional context, a space for adaptations or performances outside ritual settings, departs from temple performances to modern platforms.

This revolutionary shift garnered widespread attention and acceptance, culminating in Kerala’s participation in the International Puppetry Festival in Russia 1979.

Frank Camilleri observes that performance is not a fixed product but as a mixture of elements such as adjustment and addition in learning processes like training, rehearsing, mediation, alteration (1). I align with Camilleri’s perspective that performance is fluid and dynamic, carrying the inherent potential for self-reproduction or transformation. These processes illustrate how shadow puppetry is preserved but actively reshaped, enabling it to remain culturally resonant while negotiating between continuity and innovation. Adjustment means to have shifts in dialogue delivery such as pacing, diction to suit different categories of audiences while addition involves shift in material usage of puppets like the usage of goat hide. In tholpavakoothu, the process of rehearsing has also shifted: in traditional temple contexts it occurred through participant observation during long-night performances, whereas in contemporary settings it follows a structured format in which puppeteers study the entire sequence and perform it as a professional theatre play. In tholpavakoothu, rigorous training from childhood of a puppeteer equips puppeteers to master this art form, which subsequently influences their worldview to disseminate traditional knowledge through new media dialogues continuously.

Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre team with traditional shadow puppets in 2014. (*Left*) K N Somasundara Pulavar, Rajeev Pulavar, Lakshmanan Pulavar, Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, K Rajitha, Arun Kumar, Rahul Koonathara, Manoj Pulavar. Photo: Rahul Koonathara

The philosophical stance of being a puppeteer embodies a reflexive mode of creation, one that mirrors the very process of remediation in which new media or new adaptations refashion and recontextualize prior forms. This perspective situates adaptation as an ongoing dialogue between media, where each work remediates the aesthetic and social significance of earlier ones in pursuit of the real (Ryan 31). Given that traditional shadow puppetry can be understood as inherently adaptive, in the sense that its performative conventions have always left space for improvisation, variation and contextual adjustment. This flexibility allows practitioners to engage in the remediation of the tradition not as a break from the past, but as part of an ongoing negotiation between ritual continuity and contemporary innovation. It can be best analyzed by the puppet company’s most recent puppet production Mindi Meetam (2021) during the covid pandemic to experiment hybrid puppetry possibilities where traditional shadow puppet manipulation is combined with animated and computer graphics figures.

Hybrid puppetry performance positions puppeteers in an intermediary role negotiating between ancestral ritual practice and technologically mediated performance. This in-between stance challenges puppeteers to maintain traditional ritual performances on the one hand and thereby illustrating the adaptive potential of tholpavakoothu in digital environments. An adaptation has its own aura, its own presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be (Benjamin 214). Considering Walter Benjamin’s words and Ramachandra’s standpoint, that distinguishes between temple and non-temple performances: ritual tholpavakoothu performances preserves its aura unchanged in sacred contexts, while contemporary experiments in secular or digital venues create a different aura through adaptation process.

**Salil Singh’s Models of Good vs Bad Appropriation**

Singh’s article “If Gandhi Could Fly: Dilemmas and Directions in Shadow Puppetry of India,” published in 1999, explores the initiative to revitalize Indian shadow puppetry through modernizing traditional forms. This initiative brought together traditional puppeteers from across India in Dharmasthala, Karnataka, for a puppetry festival where they were commissioned by the Sangeet Natak Academy and the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, Government of India to perform the modern narrative of Mahatma Gandhi’s life. Singh critiques that these initiatives resulted in an evident disconnect between the traditional art form and the contemporary epic of Gandhi’s life, highlighting it as a “noble idea gone terribly wrong” (Singh 155).

Traditional shadow puppetry, succeeding in myths and rituals, relies on the tapestry of iconography, stylization, and spiritual significance, which could be easily adaptable to the literal and historical narratives of Gandhi’s life. Singh contends that this dissonance led to underwhelming performances, emphasizing the limitations of traditional art forms in engaging with contemporary narratives. However, the single team that chose not to perform the narrative of Gandhi and instead performed the Ramayana story at that puppetry festival, a decision that captivated Singh and produced a documentary about the life of Krishnan Kutty Pulavar.

Moreover, it investigates the critical factors allowing practitioners to shift their worldview, especially in reaction to the political system’s funding of performances about Gandhi’s life, which encouraged them to seek alternative means of expressing their art, such as through new media technologies. The central question of who sets the norms for producing these narratives is political. Governmental agencies employ traditional art forms as communication tools to convey national interests by evoking narratives of freedom fighters and nationalist movements to develop a sense of unity and to mobilize the audience as a form of cultural leverage in times of political need or demand. This political interference hints at censorship of the arts, suppresses authentic representation, and obscures the identity of the art form identity. However, a decade after 1996, when Singh witnessed the festival, the same traditional puppeteers from Kerala released “Gandhikoothu” in the tholpavakoothu style, which depicts the Indian freedom struggle and the life story of Mahatma Gandhi. I was ten years old when this production took place; it was marked by a healthy struggle, arguments, and dialogues among puppeteers, scriptwriters, musicians, puppet makers, sound engineers, and researchers. I must express my appreciation for Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, who allowed the puppeteers the freedom to speak and to offer our suggestions. This practice was quite unusual in the traditional Indian teaching system. The conflicts and dialogues varied, ranging from decisions on which side the puppet entrance should be, which music tradition to follow, to what dialogue narration pattern should be used. The continuous dialogue about keeping tradition or adding modern elements to each part was thoroughly analyzed. I can affirm that the performance of “Gandhikoothu” in 2006 represents a modern narrative while remaining closely connected to traditional techniques and presentations.

Singh adds that contemporary puppeteers find themselves caught in a dilemma, torn between two alternatives that pose distinct challenges for the future of their art. The case with togalu gombeyatta, Karnataka puppeteers grapple with maintaining their art’s identity while engaging and entertaining their audiences. This critical analysis further explores alternative pathways for the evolution of shadow puppetry, spotlighting the efforts of some puppeteers to strike a balance between tradition and modernity. Singh’s analysis exposes a complex collaboration between continuing traditional art form and simultaneously adapting contemporary narratives and audience expectations. The changes made to Gandhi Koothu after each performance were well-received by audiences, though critiques varied concerning dialogues, songs, or the portrayal of freedom fighters and historical conflicts. Such feedback was not common in traditional performances of the epic Ramayana. Therefore, when we performed Gandhi Koothu, the team was initially prepared to accept critiques and make necessary changes.

Gandhi Koothu – an Adaptation in 2006

The strategic and continuous efforts of the puppet company Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre to produce multiple contemporary performances merit analysis, particularly in how they address and tackle the challenges presented above. Gandhi Koothu as an adaptation marked a new beginning for tholpavakoothu practitioners involving script creation, screenplay writing, puppet sketching, puppet-making, puppet manipulation, narration, songs, sound mixing, and coordination. The performance contrasts traditional narration composed of Tamil, Malayalam and Sanskrit verses with cinematic voiceovers in Malayalam and combines the glow of traditional oil lamps with electric stage lighting, which sharpens illumination and enhances transition between sequences.

In Gandhi Koothu, a departure from tradition is observed in the choice of materials for crafting puppets with goat hide replacing the traditionally used deer and buffalo hide. This shift enhances the transparency of the puppets and facilitates the use of vibrant acrylic colors through diverse modern painting styles. While contemporary puppets often adapt patterns from traditional characters with fixed semiotic meanings, Gandhi Koothu departs from this rigidity. By analyzing the figures of Gandhi, freedom fighters, and colonial officials in transparent acrylic colors that echo but do not replicate traditional motifs, the performance makes these characters visually accessible to modern audiences and exemplifies puppetry’s revival through adaptation.

The government commissioned the retelling of Mahatma Gandhi’s story in various Indian cultural performances, including puppetry, in order to educate the younger generations about the freedom struggle. Puppetry was chosen as one of the media for two main reasons: firstly, it is a folk medium that can effectively communicate with rural or folk audiences; secondly, puppetry was considered a dying art form that could be rejuvenated through new practices (Ramachandra 16). Thus, the Gandhi’s story and Indian independence was used to promote the values of a secular and democratic country where unity is paramount. Traditional puppeteers, who were accustomed to narrating tales from the epic Ramayana, now skillfully manipulate figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad, and Koyapalli Kelappan Nair, alongside various other freedom fighters, colonial officials, police officers, and props like spinning wheels, guns, and animated war sequences. This shift illustrates how tholpavakoothu adapts epic storytelling techniques to narrate Indian independence struggles. For instance, the adaptability of Indian freedom movement faced significant complexity in crafting new puppets and narrative changes needed for Gandhi Koothu as ritual conventions are reworked to engage with modern political and social histories.

The adept craftsmen, who create extensive and massive puppets of Lord Rama in their daily routine, encountered unease during the creation of the Gandhi puppet. Unlike the familiar task of crafting Lord Rama, whose carving features follow well established symbolic conventions, but the creation of the Gandhi puppet demanded a different kind of intricacy rooted in realism. Capturing his recognizable facial attire posed a unique challenge as the puppet had to balance traditional stylization and historical accuracy. The continuous evaluation of old traditional puppets to be repurposed and the meticulous re-assignment of traditional patterns for carving the Gandhi Koothu puppets became a three-year productive undertaking for Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre.

Mahatma Gandhi puppet projected through shadows with Charka (spinning wheel). Photo: Rahul Koonathara

Similarly, with regards to vocal aspect of performance, the puppeteers recognized that the traditional voicing pattern for the Gandhi story, as mentioned by Singh, would be unsatisfactory. Therefore, they planned to merge music with new compositions, ensuring that narrations followed the tholpavakoothu style. The performance unfolds with a Malayalam song, signaling a departure from tradition and setting a new tone. This transformation in Gandhi Koothu becomes apparent through its deviation from traditional narration styles. In contrast to the tholpavakoothu puppet tradition, which typically narrates songs and meanings from the Kamparamayanam story, Gandhi Koothu alters songs to resonate with a wider audience in Malayalam and incorporates a blend of Carnatic music. By reconfiguring voice, music, and narration, Gandhi Koothu transforms ritual conventions into a hybrid form that is locally grounded yet contemporarily resonant. It exemplifies adaptation as a negotiation between continuity and change, sustaining puppetry’s revival within modern political and aesthetic frameworks.

The narrative of Gandhi Koothu vividly portrays Gandhi’s life and pivotal moments in the freedom movement. Commencing with a song, the production unfolds significant events, including the Maritzburg railway station incident in South Africa, the Salt March to Dandi, the Quit India movement, and the ultimate tragedy of Gandhi’s assassination on January 30, 1948. In personal interview with Ramachandra Pulavar, he revealed that his motivation for undertaking this initiative was deeply personal and he dedicates this performance to his father, Shri Krishnan Kutty Pulavar, who played a crucial role in adapting the temple tradition to non-traditional contexts. Homi Bhabha reminds us that nations are narrated into being: “the people are not simply historical events or parts of a patriotic body; they are also a sign of the iterative temporality of the nation as a narrative strategy” (145).

Cultural production becomes a crucial site for articulating modern national identity through traditional forms. The inspiration for the play emerged from a meeting organized by Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, urging state puppeteers to depict Gandhi’s story. Pulavar emphasized the challenges faced in finding a script and creating new characters challenges that underscore Bhabha’s point about ambivalence of cultural authority. Eventually, success was achieved with the assistance of novelist Nandan Edappal illustrating how national institutions and regional artists together negotiated the translation of modern political history into the symbolic language of tholpavakoothu.

**Experimenting with Form: Mindi Meetam in the Time of Covid -19 Crisis**

Across the last fifteen years, Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre has produced multiple modern productions that have equipped the puppeteers to handle in different manipulative styles of puppet traditions, alongside technological advancements and contemporary dramaturgy. Consider their production of Mindimeetam, filmed at Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre in 2021 as an example of technological changes fused into modern tholpavakoothu performances.

During the pandemic, as the world faced lockdowns and everyone struggled for their existence in multiple ways, Kerala’s shadow puppeteers also foresaw the danger to their art form. Mindimeetam is a three-minute musical-video production that spread a theme of hope that, soon after the pandemic, everyone could gather as we were in the pre-pandemic world. The opening scene of the production features a single frame shot of a football match, where the football players are represented through shadow puppets, manipulated in the tholpavakoothu style while the football stadium with cheerful spectators and the football itself are brought to motion through computer graphics. This scene brings a tension between traditional training techniques with precision-based movements demanded by the camera angle used to capture the image.

In traditional tholpavakoothu performance, puppeteers are trained in a fluid rhythm of ritual movement, which normally has asymmetry or irregular movements which are not seen as flaws but shaped by lineage, devotion, and embodied practice. However, in the Mindimeetam performance, the puppeteers had to synchronize their movements with the cinematographer’s framing, a requirement unfamiliar in traditional shadow puppetry performances, where performers focus on the physical audience perception and consider the whole white screen for the performance. Thus, during the filming process, certain scenes had to be repeated multiple times to achieve the desired cinematic composition. The challenge is not just technical but ontological, since digital mediation redefines the nature of performance, when traditional tholpavakoothu performance embraces variation whereas the puppet video production demands precision and reproducibility of the final product. Such adaptation manifests in various forms, from rhetorical to representational, when the puppet imagery is reconfigured through animation thus the embodiment is translated into digital reproducibility altering both practice and meaning.

Mindimeetam play directed by Emcy Joseph, performed by Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre puppeteers in 2021

Integrating multiple media into a traditional medium has unlocked significant potential for scene development, contributing to the evolution of hybrid puppetry in tholpavakoothu. Mindimeetam is an example of modern media puppetry performance because it converges hybrid puppetry skills, computer-graphics and animation as they represent dual communication media thus expressing through the tradition of tholpavakoothu visual aesthetics. During the pandemic, online socializing was the predominant medium for connecting with loved ones. The scene where animated emojis transfer from one static puppet to another puppet who are on opposite ends of the screen stood out to me most because it aesthetically conveys the varied emotions of an individual who are not connected physically but are connected through online platforms. Traditionally, such emotions are conveyed through narration and songs, but in Mindimeetam the puppet’s expressions through animated emojis, an advancement in visual dramaturgy that extends tholpavakoothu and the puppet company’s shift in choosing the narrative subjects for the performance and playfulness.

India’s Got Talent reality show performed by the artists of Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre, Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, Rajeev Pulavar, Rahul Koonathara, Lakshmanan Somasundaran, Manoj Pulavar in 2015

The traditional aesthetic of translucent puppets and the visibility of sticks during puppet manipulation are hallmarks of traditional shadow puppetry. However, in Mindimeetam puppets were carefully crafted color transparencies appear in scenes such as a street with pedestrian crossing, where the puppets wait for the green light before walking. This line from the text is visualized on screen as the traffic light changes shift from red to green, using computer graphics alongside puppets of birds and animals that move across to animate the scene. At the same time, the sticks used to manipulate puppets remain visible reminding viewers of the performance’s hybrid nature. This interplay allows the audience to appreciate the combination of technology and human effort integrated into this contemporary puppet production.

As it was during the pandemic lockdown, the pre-production meetings were virtually planned, where they discussed scripts and the possibilities of visuals in puppetry as envisioned by the puppeteers. The team rapport facilitated an understanding of the limitations of traditional shadow puppetry and generated ideas to integrate digital media technologies. Realizing the precise combination is not easy, but the puppeteers’ self-reflective actions aimed at revitalizing and elucidating new possibilities with responsibility have significantly benefited tholpavakoothu. The adaptation process is gradual and ongoing, evolving in cycles and responding to the changing demands of society.

These experiments in shadow puppetry narrate the performance by combining new media techniques like animation, projection, computer graphics, music, and new media tools. The tradition extends, and modernity develops new aesthetics, attracting new media audiences. The target audience for this performance is virtual audience, and the visuals were shot to appropriate digital aesthetics such as animation overlays and post-production editing. Mindimeetam was conceived as a one-time production created specifically for online platforms, with no intention of extending it into the company’s stage repertoire. As Claudia Orenstein observes, tholpavakoothu puppeteers have pursued diverse strategies to revitalize the art, ranging from traditional stages to hybrid performance styles and address caste and gender issues prevalent to the art form.

[For tholpavakoothu puppeteers working] in a more hybrid style, to keep their ritual form of puppetry intact, continuing those annual performances associated with temples, while exploiting their skills in carving, performing, and storytelling in various new ways outside the temple grounds. In its new incarnations, tholpavakoothu is as much a business proposition as an artistic one. Trying out new stories for performance is only one of many ways the company is confronting today’s cultural realities (2014, 206).

The economic practicality of developing tholpavakoothu performance is a noteworthy existence approach, alongside their obligation to uphold ritual temple performances. The tension between cultural fluidity and commodification of puppets also creates conflict when contemporary narratives are appropriated, posing a widespread challenge for folk art forms enduring adaptation by the communities itself. In addition to Orenstein, I would like to add that, Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre uses a two-pronged approach to support religious ritual performances during the temple season and rest of the time is explored for modern performances, which helps to deal the cultural sensitiveness and separate their performances between tradition and modernity. The strategy employed by the puppet company may hinder its potential to fully realize its significance in modern genre in the context of twenty first century.

Usually, the puppeteers have performed many contemporary narratives in shadow puppetry, all directed to communicate with a physical audience in a one-hour play format. However, this video, intended for digital release, took around eighteen hours of shooting and ninety hours of pre-production and post-production. Even though the performance lasted only a few seconds, the pre-production and production process involved the labor of twenty artists in the crew, among which eight were puppeteers from the Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre. By dividing tasks among peer groups and involving external artists in design and performance, the troupe demonstrated adaptability, expanding traditional roles and underscoring the integration of craft, puppetry and digital media in Mindimeetam.

Documentary directed by Sangeet Sankar, Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre, in 2020

Technical advancements in lighting now make the puppet screen function more like a cinematic surface, producing sharper and more puppet than in the traditional performances. For instance, the integration of LED warm lights alongside traditional oil lamps reflects a negotiation between ritual aesthetics and cinematic demands, the LED lights produced sharper, more stable shadows while the oil lamps with their natural flicker generate a ritual ambience of the traditional performance. This approach highlights how technological adaptation alters not only the visual texture of puppetry but also its experiential aura, shifting the form between sacred ephemerality and digital reproducibility. Rajeev Pulavar, the eldest son of Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, received training in both traditional and modern puppetry and lead these contemporary experiments with remediating inherited aesthetics while advancing new dramaturgical paradigms. The evolution of tholpavakoothu across generations is emblematic by its patronage and thematic focus but also by the incorporation of new technologies and performance contexts. Rajeev’s interventions in the remediation process exemplify the ongoing metamorphosis of this performative lineage and in dialogue with contemporary cultural demands.

Documentary titled Nizhalattam, directed by Rajeev Pillath, life history of Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar in 2019

Conclusion

The symbiotic relationship tradition and modernity in tholpavakoothu practice develops a paradigmatic model for cultural rejuvenation through strategic experimentation which revitalized the temple traditional ritual art form into hybrid performance art. The evolutionary trajectory of modern narratives from the subjects of Gandhikoothu Jesus Koothu, Dhuryodhanavadam, Rabindranath Tagore’s play Chandala Bhikshuki, Panchatantra fables, to Mindimeetam are illustrative of transformative aesthetic potential of tholpavakoothu. The adoption of hybrid puppetry explorations transcends technological advancements and mediating traditional aesthetics as dynamics tools capable of contemporary consciousness. The strategic fusion of multiple inclusive movements effectively dissolves conventional standard of performance boundaries of religious traditional performances, expanding the scope of textual choice, communicative experiences that address societal needs. These adaptations have placed tholpavakoothu not as a static old cultural representation but as a medium of communication that speaks to the people of present, past, and future generations.

Considering the contemporary experiments of tholpavakoothu, whose ritual performances hold immense potential, it is imperative to disseminate and develop new strategies that transfer traditional techniques while embracing and adapting to new media possibilities.

While religious institutions often emphasize the challenges of interpreting the form and safeguarding its authenticity, these concerns are less frequently addressed by practitioners themselves. To those who criticize his approach to innovation, Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, responds that incorporating new themes, media, and modern platforms ensures that tholpavakoothu remains relevant to contemporary audiences while still retaining its ritual essence. In Pulavar’s view, “modernization does not erase authenticity but rearticulates it, allowing the form to sustain its cultural significance across generations.”

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Kaplin, Stephen. “A Puppet Tree: A Model for the Field of Puppet Theatre.” TDR/The Drama Review, vol. 43, no. 3, Sept. 1999, pp. 28–35.

Koonathara, Rahul. “Modernity in Tholpavakoothu: Analyzing Contemporary Productions.” Puppetry International Research, 8 Aug. 2023.

Koonathara Krishnan Kutty, Ramachandran. Tholpavakoothu. Bhasha Institute, 2015.

Orenstein, Claudia. “Forging New Paths for Kerala’s Tolpavakoothu Leather Shadow Puppetry Tradition.” The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, 2014, pp. 205–17.

Prakash, Brahma. Cultural Labour: Conceptualizing the “Folk Performance” in India. Oxford UP, 2020.

Ranciere, Jacques. The Politics of Aesthetics. Continuum, 2004.

Ryan, Marie-Laure. “Introduction.” Narrative Across Media: The Languages of Storytelling, edited by Marie-Laure Ryan, U of Nebraska P, 2004, pp. 1-40.

Singh, Salil. “If Gandhi Could Fly…: Dilemmas and Directions in Shadow Puppetry of India.” TDR/The Drama Review, vol. 43, no. 3, Sept. 1999, pp. 154–68.

Sinha, Atul, and Rahul Koonathara. “Intermedial Practices’ Influence on a Contemporary Shadow Puppetry with Traditional Aesthetics.” Anvesak, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 45–50.

“Mindi Meetam.” Directed by Emcy Joseph, performed by Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre, 2021. YouTube.

“India’s Got Talent – Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre.” Performed by Ramachandra Pulavar, Rajeev Pulavar, Rahul Koonathara, Lakshmanan Somasundaran, Manoj Murali, 2015. YouTube.

“Documentary on Tholpavakoothu.” Directed by Sangeet Sankar, Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre, 2020. YouTube.

Nizhalattam. Directed by Rajeev Pillath, 2019. YouTube.

Personal communication with Puppeteer Ramachandra Pulavar, 25 June 2024.

Personal Communication with puppeteer Rajeev Pulavar, 8 July 2024.

*Rahul Koonathara is currently pursuing graduate studies at the University of Connecticut in the Department of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies under the guidance of Professor Matthew Isaac Cohen. Rahul is the youngest son of Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar and Rajalakshmi who actively practices the traditional style of Indian tholpavakoothu shadow puppetry at Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Center while experimenting contemporary puppet practices and conducting academic research on puppetry arts. Rahul holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature & Cultural studies from the University of Connecticut, a master’s degree in Folklore Studies, and a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Calicut. A certificate program specialized on intensive acting diploma from the National School of Drama, Bangalore.