Tholpavakoothu Ramayana Performance
This ancient, ritually rooted performance is based on verses from the Kamba Ramayana, the Tamil version of the Hindu epic the Ramayana. The performance includes 71 different characters, and over 160 different shadow figures. While traditional Tholpavakoothu shadow theater takes in temples as ritual performance, Ramachandra Pulavar and his family have popularized the form by performing a variety of stories of contemporary social relevance, about Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, and the empowerment of women, as well as performances based on traditional tales from the Mahabharata and the Panchatantra. Tholpavakoothu shadow figures follow four main design categories: sitting, standing, walking, and fighting puppets, as well as puppets depicting nature, battle scenes, and ceremonial processions.
About the Company: Krishnan Kutty Pulavar Memorial Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre
Krishnan Kutty Pulavar Memorial Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre was founded in memory of the legendary great guru K.L.Krishnan Kutty Pulavar who took the initiative with Shri.G.Venu to promote this temple ritualistic art form from the temple premises to secondary performance spaces. The Pulavar family has continued the age-old tradition of shadow puppetry for the past 12 generations with all the traditional ritualistic performances while simultaneously incorporating contemporary narratives. We perform yearly in around 85 temples in Kerala from January to May as part of our tradition in the permanent shadow puppet theatres erected in temples. The centre focuses on promoting the tholpavakoothu performances and offering traditional training sessions to the upcoming generation in which we focus on teaching all its traditional aspects of puppet making, manipulation, designing, and narration. We have a puppet theatre in which we have exhibited all our different puppets, books and manuscript styles. Now the centre aims to safeguard indigenous knowledge traditions of puppetry in Kerala.
