Puppeteer who dared to automate shadow puppets to revive a dying art

Sajeesh said the application of robotics was an idea developed solely to catch the attention of the audience and revive their interest in the art form

Sajeesh Pulavar grew up watching the ochre shadows and dancing silhouettes of leather puppets popping up on the white cloth-screen at 'koothumadams' (temple theatre).

While learning the maiden lessons of manipulating light from the oil lamps and creating beautiful shadows moving the ritual puppets at these specially erected theaters, never had the teenager imagined that he would once pave the way for animating them with the help of robotics.

For the first time in the centuries-old history of shadow puppetry in the country, the leather puppets recently performed the epic Ramayana with the support of robotics in Kerala and Sajeesh Pulavar, a young puppeteer, was the brain behind the path-breaking initiative.