The Messenger Sail is an interactive project aimed at raising awareness for the ongoing conservation efforts in and around Chilika Lake. The artist attempted to involve the local communities around the lake, a process which revealed to him a unique indigenous art form called Ravan Chhaya (Shadow puppetry dance). Taking advantage of the amusing and visually pleasing characteristic of the Ravan Chhaya, Jena revitalized the tradition of folk-theatre as a tool to re-imagine Chilika. Jena began his project by conducting thorough research from local libraries on the history of the lake, and of the Ravan Chhaya tradition. He came across several 19th century texts by prominent poets such as Kabibar Radhanath Ray and Godavarish Mishra, who had composed poems describing the natural beauty and socio-cultural significance of Chilika Lake. His research also led him to visit several villages in and around Chilika, meeting the local fisherman communities; meeting with the scientific teams of the CDA (Chilika Development Authority); and eventually meeting with the village community of the Ravan Chhaya puppeteers.

In Ravan Chhaya the puppeteer basically plays the story of Ramayana along with music and song. Jena wanted to use this indigenous knowledge to express ecological problems of Chilika. Instead of mythological character, he created intended to create some characters from Chilika’s History. Different stories and myths would be used to make figures representing the present condition of Chilika. In the traditional Ravan Chhaya, musicians will sing and play music with Khanjani and Cymbals in front of the screen, but Jena conceptualized a more contemporary soundtrack to be composed and developed with the puppeteers. To create the illusion of a theatre, the puppeteer’s usually hang a white screen and manipulate puppets from behind the curtain. Jena chose to abstract the visual character by using a big sail as a screen for this open air floating theatre. This sail would have a functional use of propelling the boat, as well as the aesthetic consideration of creating a theatre set. The sail also symbolized the glory of the maritime age of Chilika Lake.

After forming a relationship with the puppeteers, and conducting extensive research on the history of folk theatre in the region, Jena set about working on a script in collaboration with the puppeteers. The idea was to create a floating theatre, using the traditional forms of storytelling to create anarrative about the contemporary situation of Chilika Lake. Based on the script, Jena and the puppeteers created puppets using simple papers. The inspiration for the puppets form and character came from the poetry of Radhanath Ray, Gopabandhu Das and Godavarish Mishra. He chose different stories and myths from their poems and made different puppet characters. From Radhanath Ray’s “Chilika” poem, the artists had illustrated different stories; the story of Raktabahhu, Kanchi Vijay and the story of Manic Gauduni. Jena also made puppet characters from the story of Kalijai written by Godavarish Mishra. Jena even composed the music for the performance using lyrics from the poems, which he hoped would help the viewers create connections. The lyrics were interspersed with dialogue that he had developed in conversation with the puppeteers. The final performance took place in October 2014