A mask-maker who has sold none since March

A mask-maker who has sold none since March

MT.Saju@timesgroup.com

Chennai:16.11.2020

Here’s a mask maker who couldn’t sell even one during the lockdown. E Vengadessin designs and makes all kinds of masks, headgear and dolls for theatre groups in Tamil Nadu. But there have been no takers for the last eight months.

A gold medallist from Pondicherry University (MA in theatre arts in 2000), Vengadessin trained as a theatre trainer and doll-and-mask maker. Having been in the business for the past 18 years, he says he never expected the pandemic would hit so badly.

“There were some extra orders from theatre groups in the last January and February. I was in a hurry and somehow finished making the masks and other costumes in March. But then the pandemic hit. I couldn’t sell even a single mask since March,” said Vengadessin, who lives in Puducherry.

“The pandemic is global, but the suffering is personal. I lost grip, and started struggling in the initial months during lockdown,” he said. When many of his colleagues started doing parttime jobs to make a living, Vengadessin had no idea how to survive. “I spent a lot of time looking at the masks out of frustration and disappointment. My wife’s job as a teacher was the only ray of hope. But survival is still difficult,” he said.

However, this 46-year-old artist hasn’t lost hope. Despite the hardships, he strives to learn more about mask-making. “I struggled in the beginning, but now I have got used to it. I study more about theatre and costume. I have started making use of this time productively by adapting modern methods in the style of making masks. I am trying to reinvent my style techniques,” said Vengadessin, who has conducted mask-making workshops and seminars on acting in schools and colleges across Tamil Nadu.

Vengadessin believes that things will change, and his masks will soon find faces. “I am trying to convince myself that the worst is over. Things will change, and my masks will soon find proper faces on the stage,” he said.

NO TAKERS: A mask resembling an elephant head made by Vengadessin, a trained doll-and-mask maker