The familiarity with which they speak about incidents that are believed to have occurred in medieval Europe, is surreal. Without a master voice-over, the actor-singers of Chavittunadakam in Gothuruth talk about the plays and stories in the documentary. It is a legacy that has been preserved by them in the face of great odds,” he says. “Its practitioners are fishermen, weavers, boatmen, masons and so on. The Fragments of Illusion, a documentary on Chavittunadakam, which won the Kerala State Television Award for the best director in the non-fiction category. Clad in shiny costumes and shoes, they speak in a mixture of Tamil and Malayalam and sing songs about battles fought in faraway lands to protect the early Christians.Ĭharmed by a play he happened to watch, J Bibin Joseph, an engineer-turned-film director from Thiruvananthapuram made Natakam means play in Malayalam) enacted mainly by Latin Catholic residents-turned-actors. įrom North Kollam to Thrissur, makeshift stages come alive with Chavittunadakam ( Under harsh fluorescent lights, men and women transform into Emperor Charlemagne (the first Holy Roman Emperor), Oliver, Roland, Bethesda, knights, warriors and Turks, all characters from medieval Europe the mainstay of Chavittunadakam, an indigenous form of theatre popular among the coastal people of Kerala.Īlso Read | Get ‘First Day First Show’, our weekly newsletter from the world of cinema, in your inbox. As shadows lengthen on Gothuruth Island, a village 40 kilometres from Kochi, weary feet quicken.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |