A mind-blowing performance "Dohe jo Mohe", by The Ishara Puppet Theatre & Soulë Band at Mahindra Kabira Festival 2022 at Shivala Ghat in Benaras
Recently we were at Mahindra Kabira Festival 2022, which happened in Varanasi and it was a very special visit due to multiple reasons. Planned this trip with friends who were genuinely interested into Kabir and hence along the way we also learnt a lot of things. We also extended the trip for few more days as it was our first visit. Although that extension was not enough, as Benaras has so much to explore and appreciate. Being oldest city of the world and a city from where lot of artists, yogis created their name & touched so many lives, there is a lot Varanasi offers. Coming back to Mahindra Kabira Festival, we saw something very special for the first time. This blogpost is about one of the special event at Mahindra Kabira Festival 2022 - Dohè jo Mohè by The Ishara Puppet Theatre & Soulë Band.
....
I thought I will first let you watch this short video from the performance by The Ishara Puppet Theatre & Soulë Band, as I found it hard to explain the magic they created on the stage. This show was put together by The Ishara Puppet Theatre who have been doing these kind of shows across the word and have also done puppet theatre festivals. After seeing this performance, I was wondering how I missed the Ishara Puppet Theatre Festival at India Habitat centre which was produced by Teamwork Arts who are behind Mahindra Kabira Festival as well.
Above photograph shows the moment when all the artists were being introduced on the stage and Padma Shri, Dadi D. Pudumjee, said, “The Ishara puppet theatre trust accompanied by specially composed tracks by the Soule Band was honoured to be a part of the Mahindra Kabira Festival in Varanasi.”
In december'22 Ishara puppet theatre group will be in Goa if you are interested. They are performing ‘Rumiyana’, which is a musical puppet theatre performance based on the works of the great Sufi mystic, poet, and philosopher Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, whose influence transcends all conceivable borders and unites people across categories of race, nationality, and gender. The Masnavi never gets old—indeed, its tales of love shine with renewed vigour each time we visit the poem.
....
This production synergises puppets, actors, and dancers, to create a multimedia performance with music, animations, and digital projections. Using the metaphors of soul, body, and shadow, the performance explores the idea of the true self in consonance with the concepts of pluralism and the unity of all existence as One. Enacted by two artists essaying the roles of master and student, with the student being in present-day attire and the master evoking the Sufi saint Shams, the show celebrates love, unity, harmony, and diversity, safe in the knowledge that there are as many paths to the divine as there are seekers.
Director: Dadi Pudumjee
Group: Ishara Puppet Theatre
Artists: Dadi Dorab Pudumjee, Mohit Mukherjee, T. Joshua Chin, Pawan Waghmare, Shamsul, Umang Gupta, Sheel, Kumari Yadav, Narayan Sharma, Shaaz Ahmed, Vivek Kumar
Music: Sandeep Pillai
Animation: Shaaz Ahmed
For more check out the link above.
Kabir’s famous ‘Chadariya jheeni re jhini’, played by Soule to accompany Ishara’s moving performance had the audience on their feet.
Soule Band beautiful sung kabir songs like 'Jagat mein jeena seekh le bhai...' & "Chadariya jheeni re jheeni...". The team of Ishara Puppet Theatre performed beautifully. During the performance, performers went away from the stage and came back, but the band kept singing and playing soulful music. Different kind of puppetry acts were done and there were different surprise elements for the audience. In one part of the performance, the crew handed over a huge rope to different folks and asked it to move around the whole crowd and they done it pretty well.
I was super impressed the person who was managing thise huge puppet of Kabir. There was significant role of this puppet in whole performance and I was wondering about the weight of the puppet one human to handle. It was super impressive and when the artists were introduced the one who was managing this puppet got max & loud claps.
Dadi Padumji is founder of The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust and more about him can be checked here on wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadi_Pudumjee . He was awarded Padamshree by President of India in 2011and other awards are also mentioned on the link mentioned above.
This performance had beautiful Kabir songs and brilliant performance by artists of Ishara Puppet Theatre Group. This performance will remain one of the most special ones at Mahindra Kabira Festival 2022. Hope that I get to see them often at other festivals across India and abroad.
....
.jpg)