KALIYAN: PUPPETRY ON PAKISTAN TELEVISION (PTV)

Abstract

Kaliyan; first broadcasted on Pakistan Television (PTV) in 1976, is one of the most famous children television program. It is mainly a puppet play executed with some of the most iconic puppet characters developed by veteran Farooq Qaiser. The production is minimal in style with basic mise en scene; set and props. Primarily the features of puppets derived from local faces with slight influence from glove puppets used in Sesame Street (1969). The names of characters are extracted from local slang, for example: Uncle Sargam, Rola, Shermeli, Haiga. The content is mostly humorous with a tinge of satire, and it covers a large range of subjects from children education to social issues and political discourse. An episode of Kaliyan normally combines live action, sketch comedy, music and puppetry, and tries to communicate with children in an indirect way of visual representation. This paper analyses the characters and content of one of the episodes of Kaliyan based on early childhood education: “Shermeli”.