New Delhi: Puppets have an ability to tell great stories, which is why French artiste Massimo Schuster has chosen to use them to narrate the Mahabharata.
"The Mahabharata belongs to all humanity. Everyone should know that there are great stories outside their own culture," Schuster said.
Using waist-high, statue-like puppets with wooden sticks and wires for hands and legs, and Cubist-influenced faces sculpted from wood and metal, Schuster brought to life Ved Vyasa's tale, playing narrator, actor and puppeteer all at once.
The puppets, designed specially for this international production by the late Italian sculptor Enrico Baj, were draped with many-hued dupattas (scarves) of cotton and silk, with the colours representing the virtues of the characters.
The Pandavas were in varying shades of blue symbolic of the vastness and purity, while the Kauravas were in black and red, representing blood and the dark-side, in an allusion to their warrior-caste.
Karna, the son of Surya, was in yellow and orange, depicting his parentage, while Dhritarashtra, in purple silk, showed off his royal lineage.
Interestingly there is no puppet for Krishna. "There is an element of divine. It is for the audience to see him in the course of my performance," Schuster said.
The choice of rather eclectic puppets?some with motifs like leaves and pitch forks?was because Schuster has an aversion to popular forms of puppetry especially string puppets.
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