Mimicry
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Mimicry is an age-old art. The first mimicry artist might have been a caveman, who copied animal voices
to keep them away. In Ramayana, when Rama chased Maricha who was in the guise of the golden deer, Maricha
shouted to attract Lakshmana in imitation of Rama's voice. In Mahabharata, Bhima used this art to entice
and eliminate the villain Keechaka. Mimicry artiste should specialize in the imitation of voices.
It is broadly of two kinds:
- Imitation of the manner of people's speaking, and
- Reproduction of mannerisms, gestures, characteristics and idiosyncrasies of the concerned persons.
Imitation should cover the voice as well as gestures. Synchronised reproduction of both the features will
have the highest entertainment value for the audience. The items of mimicry should be brief, as it is a solo
show. Mimicry comprises imitation of public figures, actors, actresses, singers, birds, animals, and sound of
music instruments, airplane, scooter, siren, car, motor bike, Rail engine, telephone, etc.
Well-known Indian artists in mimicry are: Sunil Pal, Anup and Sadhan of Kolkata, Neralla Venumadhav and
Srinivos of Hyderabad, Dilip Khanna, Nitin, Johny Lever, Navin Prabhakar of Mumbai, Gopadkar of
Mangalore, Bhagwat Mann of Chandigarh, Dr. George Mathew Purayidom of Kerala, etc.
The comedian Johnny Lever and the singer Sudesh Bhonsle are also famous as mimicry artists. Potti Sriramulu
Telugu University of Hyderabad runs a 1-year diploma course on mimicry. Mimicry is needed for puppetry,
since any object, used as a puppet, would need different voice patterns for animation. The mimicry artists
like me have been pressing for recognition of their art as most have spent decades perfecting their skills
in not just mimicking but also creating lines that have people in splits. Attempts by the State to remove human
stress through this art are no doubt laudable.
