Anyone who grew up watching Pakistan Television (PTV) programme Kaliyan knows Uncle Sargam, the puppet character that was produced by puppeteer, director, screenwriter, cartoonist and artist Farooq Qaiser.

Mr Qaiser has been in the profession for 46 years, during which time he has collected a Presidential Pride of Performance award, a Lifetime Achievement Award and many more. He now teaches puppetry at the Fatima Jinnah Women University. Dawn sat down with Mr Qaiser to discuss the art of puppetry, and where it stands today.

Q: Do you think puppetry is a ‘dying art’?

A: Like other forms of fine art, puppetry is dying in the country for many reasons. The government should patronize the art because in absence of this, extremism has flourished in the society.

It is not puppetry, but we can see the quality of films, theatre, drama and music as well as dance is on a downtrend.

There is a need to protect the fine arts and establish theatres for puppetry so that the children and elderly can watch it.

New generation should also take this form of art as a profession. Though puppetry is taught in universities and colleges, NGOs should also support this art form to convey their message to the masses.

We used puppetry to create awareness among the people about health and other subjects and it was a successful experience.

This form of art should be used to create awareness on serious issues.

It is easy to express the suppressed thoughts of the society and highlight the sufferings of the people through puppetry, in a lighter way so that the people can understand the message.

Q: Are you working to produce more characters like Uncle Sargam in coming days?

A: The character of Uncle Sargam gained popularity in the society due to his boldness on the issues in society. I am still presenting more characters in the PTV programme ‘Kaliyan’.

In the past, PTV was the only way to bring a message to the people through electronic media. But now it is time for different channels to use this form of art to convey the message and promote this form of fine art. On Dawn News, our programme got best rating and is still popular on the internet.

Q: Does this form of art draw religious resentment?

A: No, there was no religious resentment as we presented puppetry in the biggest religious party function, where religious scholars were present on the occasion.

If this was true, the PTV show ‘Kaliyan’ [would not be] on air. Basically, we used this form of art to express the feelings of the common man and nobody objected to it. If puppetry, music and drama are used in a positive way then it will not draw objections.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2015