Mangalore: A 13 comprising of members from Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal from Udaipur in Rajasthan, presented a puppet show on Swami Vivekananda at Ramakrishna Mutt premises on Wednesday. The show included spreading the life story and messages of Swami Vivekananda to the children than through a puppet show.

An hour long two shows were organised by Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi, in association with the Ministry of Culture.

It was the conversation between a grandfather and his grandson, who discuss on the life and message of Swami Vivekananda makes the show interesting coupled with a powerful narrative technique.

From the childhood days of Narendra later known as Vivekananda, his youthful days and later his address at the Chicago world parliament of religions, the show did the maximum to tell the life of Vivekananda in two hours. In one of the incidents, child Naren develops a kind of guilt for not having helped a road accident victim.

213th show

Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal Assistant Director Govardhan Samar said that the show on Swami Vivekananda organised at Mangalore was the 213th one. The show has been scripted by Laique Hussain and is directed by late Shyamali. “We are using 72 puppets in this show and have worked for eight months on it, with a budget of Rs 30 lakh. The team has already performed in several states including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarath, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Our next performance will be in Belgaum and we have already played the puppetry at Bangalore and Mysore,” he said.

On puppetry losing its popularity, Samar said that Mandal has been experimenting with the shows, be it with sound and light, manipulation of stories or by adding music and dance to appeal the audience.