Mahipat Kavi

Mahipatrai Prataprai Kavi, known simply as Kavi, was a puppeteer who performed in India and abroad and founded the troupe Puppets and Plays in 1973. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of art, from Gujarat ^[1].

From acting to puppets

Kavi was born on 28 March 1931 ^[2]. He took a diploma in acting at the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts and spent the 1960s there, acting in many of its plays ^[2]. But acting did not satisfy him, and when he watched the puppeteer Meherben Contractor at work he knew he had found his calling ^[2]. He trained under her, and came to see that a puppeteer has to be a reader, writer, poet, actor, artist, sculptor and musician all at once ^[2].

Two hundred plays

He wrote and directed more than 200 plays in Gujarati, Hindi, Sindhi, Urdu, English and French, and gave more than 4,000 shows in India and abroad ^[2]. His work drew on Indian history and heritage: Krishnaleela and the Ramayana with leather puppets in French and English, Umar Marvi in Sindhi with rod and glove puppets, the Panchatantra stories, Tagore’s Dak Ghar and Bhartendu Harishchandra’s Andher Nagri Chaupat Raja ^[2].

He ran puppetry workshops at institutions such as CEPT and Gujarat University’s journalism department, and designed courses on using puppets in children’s education and in campaigns for social causes ^[2]. His awards included the Zaverchand Meghani Award of the Gujarat government in 2000–01 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Tagore Puraskar in 2012 ^[2].

Kavi died in Ahmedabad in April 2026, aged 96 ^[3].