Alchemist’s hands: When wood and wire breathe
Just pulling a single string can bring different worlds together, turning a simple piece of wood into something that actually has a soul. This year, the Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival has turned the India Habitat Centre into a place where these silent characters finally get to talk. As you could tell, this was like a living room for stories, breathing life into old traditions and the things we worry about today. Opening day felt huge for the arts.
The Department of Posts actually released a special set of stamps for it, basically telling the world that puppetry is a massive part of India’s history. These eight stamps show off the whole range — everything from the shadow puppets down south to the string ones in the north. It is a real shout-out to the master artists who have kept these stories alive for hundreds of years. Opening night really belonged to South Korea’s Doong Doong Alert.
Put together by Culture Art Bakery FFWANG, the show felt like something out of a dream. Directed by Hwang Seokyong, the story follows a kid named Jiho who lives with his grandad and starts seeing these strange, floating “Doong Doong” spirits. They are actually a modern take on Eoduksini — those old-school shadow monsters from Korean folklore that supposedly get bigger and scarier the more you are afraid of them.
The whole performance is a way to look at what goes on in a child’s head, specifically helping kids figure out and name that invisible weight of anxiety. By mixing psychology with old traditions, the show gives these big, messy feelings a real physical shape you can actually see. By mixing shadows with real objects, the show gives a physical shape to that invisible weight of childhood anxiety.
It is a real lesson in being tough; as Jiho finds his way, you watch these “monsters” turn from scary giants into playful friends. The real takeaway is that if we actually look at our shadows with some curiosity, they just stop being so scary. Dadi D Pudumjee, who started the Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival, said that releasing these eight stamps is a massive win for India’s puppeteers.
It is a real way to honour the traditional craft and the people behind it during this 22nd year of the festival. The festival runs until February 22nd, and the stage belongs to creators from all over the world. Whether it is Italy’s Proto discovering his own world, the high-energy Albanian Wedding, or the moving Indian show about Amrita Sher-Gil, Ishara shows that strings and shadows speak to everyone.
The next few days bring some incredible talent — everything from the underwater world of The Rainbow Fish to the old-school Jataka Tales from Bhutan. It’s amazing how a puppet, when handled by someone who actually knows their craft, turns into a mirror that reflects our own history and our wildest dreams. Can wood and wire carry the weight of a human soul? This festival’s opening proves they can, blending global shadows with a historic postal salute
