Tholubommalata is a telugu word where “Tholu” means Leather” and “Bommalata” means Puppet Dance It is an age old theatre tradition of Andhra Pradesh. Group of people who perform this art wander from village to village during the course of year and offer to sing ballads, tell fortunes, perform acrobats. This custom is ancient i.e centuries before entertaining gadgets like radio, tv etc and provided knowledge of hindu epics, mythlogy and local folk tales.
The following musical instruments are used during the Tholubommalata show like harmonium, mrudagam, few strings of bells worn on anklets and wrists create dramatic clacking and banging sound effects for fight scenes.
Below is a video from Youtube where we can see present generation kids enjoying the forgotten theatre art.
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