Kochi-Sketchbook - Renu Ramanath

The December Season, Dissenting with Dignity

December is the month of festivals. In Chennai it is so.  The Madras Music Season needs no introduction, it is an institution in itself.

In Kerala, it is the month of Vrischikam, according to the Malayalam calendar, heralding the festival season in temples , traditionally. The temples come alive, elephants start their journeys to distant destinations (nowadays, riding precariously on top of trucks), percussionists trudge from one location to another and aficionados of classical art forms have a hard time flitting from festival venue to festival venue.

Of late, December has become the preferred month for non-religious festivals too. The trend was started with the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy shifting the International Film Festival of Kerala to December from the earlier schedule of April. Now, it seems that every cultural institution deems it fit to conduct whatever annual festival in December, as if to co-incide with the brief spell of comparatively cool weather (at least during the night time) in Kerala.

This December too, was no different. May be, only too packed. As usual, the season was heralded with the IFFK, which has become a sort of cultural pilgrimage point in Kerala. All other cultural activities grind to a halt during the eight days of the Film Festival. Film aficionados make their way to Thiruvananthapuram with religious fervour. Putting on the festival badge around the neck is seen by some as sacred as the garland of beads devotees of Swami Ayyappa put on while starting their Vrata for the Sabarimala pilgrimage.  One friend who was hard-pressed for time for the festival due to official duties  told me that he dare not put on the delegate pass. “Can’t put it on,” he said, eyeing the delegate pass lying on his desk, “once its around the neck, can’t keep myself away from the venues.”

“Not going to Thiruvananthapuram ?” becomes the standard greeting, in person or over phone, the standard answer being, “Yes, off to the Railway station,” “Just getting off at Thampanoor (Thiruvananthapuram Central Station),” “Only for the week-end, no leave !” or, rarely, “No, not this year !”  followed by a heartbreaking sigh.

This year, close on the heels of the feast of films came a festival of theatre. In the middle of Kerala, in Thrissur, the seat of all the three Akademi-s. The Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi was heralding an International Theatre Festival of Kerala, which is promised to be annual event, focussing on Asian Theatre this year. The ten-day event theatre troupes from China, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries is also planned as a mega event, with a temporary auditorium seating around 4000 people being built exclusively for the festival. There are two other venues too, one for short plays, ‘Platform Performances,’ and another one for seminars.

However, the opening ceremony of the theatre festival, or ITFoK-2008 with the staging of the much-famed Peking Opera, miserably clashed with another equally gala event held further north of Kerala. People were torn between the two. The other venue was Kolathur, a village in Malappuram district, some 60 km from Thrissur. Though barely three or four hours drive away from Ernakulam, Kolathur is a different country culturewise. It is the heart of Valluvanad, an erstwhile (and, legendary) princely State in Kerala. Valluvanad has left its deep imprint in Kerala’s society not as a political or geographical entity, but due to its unique cultural identity. The tag, ‘Valluvanadan,’ has come to be associated with anything aristocratic, ‘purely Keralite,’ and poetic in language, food, habits and culture in general. Especially, the dialect spoken in this region has become so much a hit that almost all the Malayalam cine actresses, whether they hail from Thiruvanathapuram, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Kannur or Kasaragode, invariably try to affect the intonations and idioms believed to be ‘Valluvanadan.’

Integral to the cultural landscape of Kolathur is ‘Kudi.’ The word has two meanings in Malayalam. The most popular one means the act of drinking, which again means, getting inebriated. The other meaning, which is not that popular and almost confined to the local dialect, is, ‘Home.’ So, ‘Kudi,’ is Home to a lot of activities. For more than seven years, this institution, which exists thanks to the never-say-die spirit of a handful of enthusiastic cultural activists of Kolathur, had been organising events. Of various sorts. But, more of that, later.

So the quaint village of Kolathur this time was playing host to the percussion artistes of Kerala. The occasion was felicitating an illustrious son of their soil, a maestro of the percussion instrument, chenda - Kalamandalam Unnikrishnan. The name ‘Kalamandalam,’ is the invariable tag used by all classical artists trained at Kerala Kalamandalam, Kerala’s most reputed centre for the classical art forms. 

Felicitating the illustrious sons (daughters hardly get this distinction !) of the soil is a favourite engagement for Malayalis. It is more than a pastime. Usually, the celebrated soul will be an illustrious musician, or performer or percussionist or writer or a teacher, a scientist or even a business man. Often 3 – 4 day long programmes are held, with performances and a Sadya (feast), served to all visitors. Usually, the 60th birthday (Shashtipoorthi) is deemed the apt occasion, followed by the 70th birthday (Sapthathi) or 80th (Aseethi), 84th (Sathabhishekam) and the 90th (Navathi). Usually, most people don’t survive for the 100th.  

It is not clear whether Kalamandalam Unnikrishnan had reached the 60 point mark of age, but the three-day-long event – christened ‘Thrikaalam,’ (The Three Tempos) – was  a virtual feast, for the eyes, ears and the palate. Days and nights were tightly packed with programmes. The chenda melam-s (percussion ensembles) led by the greatest living maestros were scintillating, to say the least. The setting was perfect. The vast, open ground of a lower primary school, a big stage and a huge pandhal. Cars and jeeps carrying the performers could drive straight into the green room ! A little away, another huge pandhal, exclusively for serving food, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea with snacks, to all who dropped in. Hospitality – Aathithyam - at its highest !

The chilly nights with drops of dew settling down everywhere and the dusty breeze endearingly called the Palakkadan Kaattu (Palakkadan Wind), or Pandikkattu (Pandi means Tamil) circling around the red soiled open ground in day time were a little unsettling for the city dwellers, yet set the right backdrop for the unfurling of the ancient art forms.

However, what attracted me mostly were the seminars. The sessions focussed on the five thalam-s (rhythms) indigenous to the percussion system of Kerala. While the details are too technical to the novice, the spirit that prevailed over the discussions was remarkable. The participants included performers, academicians and scholars who knew exactly what they were speaking about. And they knew how to speak of all the technical stuff in words fit for lay audience, in case there were any such uninitiated people among them. And, they knew, how to dissent with dignity.

This last point is especially significant regarding the contemporary visual arts scenario around me, I found out. Those scholars and performers of the classical art forms who are unequivocal maestros in their respected fields knew that to dissent was not to detest. Dissension was part of the process of generating a healthy discourse, they knew. “The organisers have asked me to start some controversy (Vivaadam’),” quipped one speaker. By ‘controversy,’ they mean the beginning of a discourse, which would lead to the further evolution of the art form in question. Those masters do not detest those who question them. Sparks may fly on stage and in writing, but people would continue speaking with each other, and make it a point to invite the dissenting factors to the next venue, so that the discourse may continue.

When will the visual artists learn to dissent with dignity, and, when will we have a similar gala event for the visual arts, in December ?