Retired kolu dolls make a comeback

Renu Sabanayagam calls erstwhile kolu dolls out of retirement, rehabilitates them and places them again on the Navarathri beat.

Each doll in her kolu assortment now can share an account of how wholesomeness was restored to it. When Renu picked them up, these dolls had been mendacity in dingy cubbyholes and dusty vintage shops, damaged in physique. Missing physique elements needed to be reconstructed and glued on to their frames, which had been normally vastly lacklustre, requiring deft dabs of an enamel paint-carrying brush. Renu has made them entire once more in an ongoing do-it-yourself undertaking (est. 2018). In her personal phrases, this undertaking (totally a pastime to her) has thus far notched up a tally someplace between 200 and 300 dolls, every of them restored variously.

The artist in Renu encourages her to hunt these dolls that must test into a workstation earlier than ascending the kolu stage. Quoting Renu: “I am able to do this work only because I know how to draw and paint.” Though “Renu the artist” is germane to the subject, allow us to save that for the final.

The Kolu show stands out for its variety, the dolls differing noticeably in stature and dimension.

Renu, a resident of Kesavaperumalpuram in R.A. Puram, explains: “Nothing I got, I got as a set. That is why the dolls are in disparate sizes. I think in those days they used to make the Ramayana set and all that. But nothing has been handed down to me from those days. This is not from my in-laws, this is not from my parents. This is what I have collected myself in antique shops. So, sometimes you get big dolls, sometimes small dolls.”

Murugan kolu doll earlier than and after restoration.
| Photo Credit:
Special association

A walkaround

In conventional kolu shows, the dolls sit squat on stands with a number of steps (kolu padi), resembling faculty college students in a bleachers-style seating association, each strand of hair slicked into place for a group {photograph}. This tiered association works greatest when the creator of the show is confronted with restrictive spatial bandwidth. Renu needn’t skimp on house, however that’s solely half the rationale for allotting with the standard show format. The different half, the extra compelling one, is that her kolu tableux accommodates a number of themes, and calls for (and warrants) a walkaround. The outcome: a “banquet” distinguished by “themed counters”, every representing a purana.

Terracotta kolu dolls that Renu restored and has now displayed in a sequential method for her to offer a commentary on Krishna avatar.         
| Photo Credit:
PRINCE FREDERICK

How she put collectively a assortment with its numerous themes offers a microcosmic view of the human state of affairs, giving a peek into the weighty philosophical query of determinism versus free will. Renu’s assortment appears to show one has company to craft their private tales as much as a level, and past that, these tales develop a thoughts of their very own and unapologetically rewrite themselves, placing out total paragraphs with the red-end of a two-coloured editor’s pencil. Putting it plainly, the drift of her kolu tales is based on the dolls that present up in these outdated vintage shops, some cobwebbed.

Renu notes: “When I find this doll, then that doll, I say, okay let me have this story.” Which historical story, and which facet of it’s thrown into reduction, relies on the dolls she has gathered in addition to the dolls she is prepared to attend for.

Restoration of a Pavanputra hanuman doll.
| Photo Credit:
Special association

An illustration from Renu: “I found these two beautiful dolls, which were Sita and Lakshmana. And for a long time, I searched for a Rama doll to match this. But no Rama doll I found came equal to the beauty of these two dolls. I could not match it. I told myself ‘Why not try something new?’ And so, I did the Lakshman Rekha part of the story.” She positioned a ornamental tape to suggest the Lakshman Rekha with the Sita and Lakshmana dolls within the image.

The themes she has stitched collectively working across the inherent limitations of her uncompromising kolu-designing philosophy embody Rama avatar, Krishna avatar, Meenakshi kalyanam, Trishabha vahana, a assortment of Vahanas, the story of Kannappa Nayanar from Periya Puranam, the story of Kothai turning into Andal. Towards the fag finish of the walkaround, one notices a shift in focus. She has dolls demonstrating justice delivered and denied from the seat of energy by Manu Nidhi Cholan and Pandya king Nedunchezhian respectively. The tour ends with with two themes, every sending out a message to the fashionable, largely city consumerist soul — how historical traditions conserved water and eschewed extra even in marriage ceremony ceremonies.

Renu has designed the kolu as a walkaround. 
| Photo Credit:
PRINCE FREDERICK

Now, allow us to have a glimpse of the rehabilitation course of. Renu works with clay and enamel paint to revive these dolls. Dexterity is an invisible ingredient. Terracotta dolls make a huge majority, coming near constituting the complete assortment. And sandblasting an outdated, classic automobile, 10 ft lengthy and deserted for a hundred years is an undemanding train in comparison with cleansing a terracotta doll that matches in between the thumb and the index finger. Porous, terracotta dolls accumulate appreciable grime. Brittle, they may give means below barely sustained strain. One may be sure she was respiratory simple whereas engaged on a handful of wood dolls, additionally on show on the kolu.

Restoration of a doll depicting “Churning the Milky Ocean”.
| Photo Credit:
Special association

Renu has been amassing and restoring kolu dolls since 2018, adopting the pastime to fill a void created by an empty nest, the youngsters leaving residence in pursuit of their very own destinies. Renu notes in all these years solely round a couple of dolls got here painted in pure pigment colors; the remainder arrived with enamel paint in numerous phases of flaking. In many a case, she has needed to recreate total options with the paint brush, and restore the doll’s important patina. Renu the artist is intrinsic to this assortment. She observes that when she noticed two dolls, each primarily based on Ravi Varma’s work, she knew the inventive supply.

The artist

Renu calls herself “a largely self-taught artist” and “an amateur artist” (which comes throughout as a modest self-assessment when one will get acquainted along with her work) who “works with different art forms”. One senses a explicit liking for Gond tribal artwork. She doesn’t at all times work with paper and canvas, sometimes with white sneakers too — “shoes” right here shouldn’t be an auto-correct error.

An paintings set within the mould of Gond tribal artwork.
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Special Arrangement

Her husband Rajendran Sabanayagam (who was with McKinsey & Company in New York and on return to India based Sumangala Steel) explains: “Her artistic abilities were developed under the informal tutelage of my mother, Savithri Sabanayagam, and while travelling with me both in India and abroad. The artworks are of professional quality, everyone who sees them say that, but she does not want to leave her comfort zone and keeps it within the family.” Which means giving her artworks to kin, and likewise including inventive worth to white sneakers purchased for youngsters within the household (she has three grandchildren) in addition to these within the prolonged household.

Artwork finished on the sneakers for a granddaughter
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Special association

Says Rajendran: “She gets shoes, white shoes. And she paints on the white shoes for all the children. I have given her one of my white shoes and I have asked her to paint it for me.”

That would possible be the instant undertaking following this kolu season — Rajendran hopes it’s.

Published – September 27, 2025 10:47 am IST