Odisha’s only female filmmaker Lipika Singh Darai is once again in the news. The latest film of the four-time National Award winner backstage, Odisha has been shortlisted for four major international film festivals in Italy, the US, Taiwan and India, on the fading forms of puppetry.
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The 85-minute documentary, produced by the Films Division, premiered at the 39th Asolo Art Film Festival in Italy last August. It portrays the life and struggles of the puppeteers of Odisha, the only state where all four forms of puppetry are practiced – glove, string, rod and shadow.
backstage, According to Lipika, this is not just a puppet story, it echoes the sentiments of folk artists across the country who are fighting to save their craft. The filmmaker spent nine years researching and documenting the life of the puppeteer. “It is not easy to capture an art completely on camera unless you know every aspect of tradition and culture,” she says.
His first film as a student at the Indian Film and Television Institute won him the National Award for Sound Recording in 2010. After graduating from FTII, when she started working with the great Mani Kaul, she wanted to return to her motherland and her tribal roots. Lipika recorded songs from the rapidly fading Ho community to which she belongs. And thus began his cinematic exploration of the cultural canvas of Odisha.
“My research on Odisha puppetry started in 2013. The film contains important footage of my research. Over time, I formed relationships with the puppeteers and interacted closely with them. In the first half of the film, the conversation sounds like an interview; In the latter, they seem like warm, friendly chats.”
Topic, backstage, It is meant to show how a puppet lives in the shadows. “As I slowly built up the narrative, the name sounded more appropriate than ever,” Lipika says. The director recalled his first meeting with Maguni Charan Kuar, an 80-year-old rod puppeteer in Keonjhar. “His dedication and passion left a deep impact on me. He was desperate to save the art form from disappearing.” And this sparked his desire to film the art and its traditions.
Lipika traveled to Angul to locate the shadow puppet, then to Ganjam, known for string puppetry, and finally to Kendrapara district for the glove puppetry. “I met Rabi Das, a shadow puppeteer, whom I portray in the film. His troupe stopped performing several years ago, because they could not handle the challenges. He ended a tradition and sold his entire collection for just ₹500.”
During her visit to Odisha, Lipika met Gauranga Charan Das and Sabitri Das in a village in Angul district. “Committed to preserving the art form, Gauranga learned shadow puppetry; The couple moved Aadhar to a village to be in close contact with the puppeteers. Investing their entire savings in art, the couple is building a unique puppet museum where research, documentation and training will be available in all four puppet forms.
“The film shows how art flourishes in a community through individual artistic journeys,” says Lipika.
Bhubaneshwar based journalists focus on arts and culture.
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