Bhopal hosts puppet festival

Bhopal, May 17 (ANI): Hundreds of people visited a three-day puppet festival here in which entertaining skits were performed by various artistes.

Organised at the popular Rabindar Bhavan between May 12 to 14, the festival was a hit among the young and old alike.

Children, in particular, enjoyed the event the most, as they had gala time at the festival dancing and rejoicing attractive performances of puppets.

"I liked the elephant puppet and the monkey dance at the show. I liked the first puppet act of the show," said Kriti, a young girl visitor at the puppet festival.

Also, the festival brought together different puppet theatre groups from across the country to display their puppetry skills.

"I am from the Kolkata Puppet Theatre group. I am very happy to be here. We have got good reception. We are going to perform 'Black Deer' puppet show today," said Shika Dutta of Kolkata Puppet Theatre Group.

Shikha also stated that events like these with ample patronage would help the puppetry and puppet artistes gain more scope to exhibit their skills. It would also earn them more popularity among the younger generation, the kids in particular.

Various puppets group from West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh participated in this gala and colourful festival.

Puppetry is a traditional art form, whose popularity is fast declining, as the modern-day entertainment options like television, movies and Internet are fast displacing it particularly in the urban areas. By R. C. Sahu (ANI)