Master class on dolls of Padma Shri award winning Sri Dadi Pudumji at IIAD.
The Indian Institute of Art and Design has organized a master class in puppetry with the Padma Shri awardee, Hon’ble Shri Dadi Pudumji. The Communication Design Department of IIAD invited Dadi Pudumji to give the students an insight into the progress of puppetry in India.
The session was organized by IIAD and The Ishara Puppet Theater Trust, with the aim of improving performance skills, creating collaboration opportunities and bringing puppet groups and puppets together in India and abroad. Grandmother Pudumji displayed various forms of dolls, such as shadow dolls, hand dolls, rod dolls, etc.
He talks about the materials used to make the dolls and how the Indian dolls are named after the material made from them, in contrast to the Western nomenclature where it is named after the method of making dolls. He explained the evolution of Indian dolls over the years.
The session fascinated the students and teachers as a teacher like Shri Dadi Pudumji rarely got a chance to explain his craft and life work.