April 07, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 6: It takes a wealth of talent, time and passion to put a special puppet show together. And when the innovative and acclaimed National Puppet Theatre hits the stage one can expect an elegant performance that’s bound to please young and old.

For just over an hour, a world one never suspected became more and more real peppered with a host of simple but effective touches.

The funny, beautiful and fantastic mix of acting and puppetry worked really well combined with excellent music Sunday night when the group carried children and adults along on a fascinating story-telling experience.

Masters at regulating the rhythm and pace of a show to keep the audience young and old jampacked the National Art Gallery auditorium.

The group added impressive inventiveness in the range of theatrical devices they used, from presenting the puppeteers themselves to film and video projection.

Music, instrumental and sung - Jeway Pakistan - wove its way in and out of the story effectively as the puppets told the “Story of Pakistan - Pakistan ki kahani kat putlion ki zubani.

With puppets amazingly transforming into characters of their own, the fairy tale recreations transported audiences to the world of the ancient settlers in Moenjodaro millenniums ago, to cultivated lands of the invading Arians, to spread of Buddhism, depiction of Alexander the Great defeating Raja Poras, and the Arab invasion and tales of contributions of Sufi saints Data Sahib, Baba Fareed Ganj Bakhsh and Bahauddin Zakria.

With imaginative interpretation and colourful toys and some 150 puppets in stunning costumes, the group brought to life the court of Mughal emperor Babar, the most impressive entrance of Akbar on a giant cardboard elephant, and imagery of Jehangir dispensing justice.

Fast forwarding a few hundred years, the following scenes showed British ships sailing in and the takeover of the subcontinent by the Western colonials carrying audiences through the 1857 mutiny until creation of Pakistan.