Yeshwant Keshav Padhye was the pioneering
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n
Ventriloquist
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is v ...
who started
ventriloquism
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...
in India in the 1920s. He was also a
puppeteer
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...
and maker.
Early life
As a magician he performed magic shows in India. Eventually he brought puppets from England and then slowly started performing ventriloquism.
Career
Magic
Padhye started by performing magic shows at small functions when the entertainment industry was in its infancy. However he created a niche for himself when he started combining magic and puppetry. He brought the puppets from England to include in his shows, later gradually introducing ventriloquism, teaching himself from a book which he ordered from U.S.A. This excited audiences as they had never seen a lively ventriloquial puppet talk.
Puppets in films
Once the art of ventriloquism gained popularity, he also received offers from film makers. His puppets were featured in one
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
film called ''Akeli Mat Jaiyo''. His famous puppet "Ardhavatrao" appeared along with actor
Rajendra Kumar
Rajendra Kumar Tuli (20 July 1927 – 12 July 1999) was an Indian actor who starred in Bollywood films. Starting his career in 1949, he appeared in more than 80 films in a career spanning over four decades. He was popularly known as the 'Jubil ...
. The puppet was operated by Padhye himself. The music of the film was composed by
Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan is a form of the Hindu god, Krishna.
Krishna is celebrated as ''Madan Mohan'', who mesmerizes everyone. His consort, Radha is glorified as Madan Mohan's ''Mohini'', who can even mesmerise Madan Mohan (her Kahn). Radha is known as th ...
with lyrics by
Majrooh Sultanpuri
Asrar ul Hassan Khan (1 October 1919 − 24 May 2000), better known as Majrooh Sultanpuri, was an Indian Urdu poet and lyricist in India's Hindi language film industry. He wrote Hindustani lyrics for numerous Hindi film soundtracks.
He was ...
.
Personal life
Y.K. Padhye's son Ramdas Padhye, his daughter-in-law Aparna, and his grandsons Satyajit and Parikshit are also ventriloquists and puppeteers in the entertainment field.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Padhye, Y K
Year of birth missing
Indian puppeteers
Puppet designers
Ventriloquists