If you thought a scrub pad is used for cleaning utensils and a syringe for a jab, you are obviously clueless about the most popular Malayalam calligrapher.
Graphic designer-turned-calligrapher Bhattathiri, originally Narayana Bhattathiri, reaches out for scrub pads cut in different sizes and shapes or an ink-filled syringe, as much as he wields traditional calligraphy tools, to create unique shapes in Malayalam.
“See, this pattern, that of a spray, you will not get with anything else,” he tells an attentive group of designers and enthusiasts as he demonstrates how to uniquely draw a word in Malayalam using the syringe.
The workshop at Marigold Creative, a blend of a library, café and creative space at Kakkanad, had the artist explain the dynamics of calligraphic work, showing how it is different from illustration.
Learning process
“I’ve been practising it for about 40 years now and am still learning new techniques,” says Bhattathiri, who had cut his teeth at a Malayalam literary journal in the initial days of his experiments with creating unique, stylised headlines for stories and articles.
“It was then that some friends suggested that I put them up in a show. That was the beginning.” Bhattathiri calls his calligraphic portrayals ‘space poetry’. “It is not the alphabets, but the spacing and the shaping of the contours of each letter that give it a unique feel. Almost like a work of art.”
So, when he writes about smoke rising, it is almost as if smoke billows from the calligraphed words. And, if it is about something meaning delicate, the portrayal immediately obtains a quality of being tender. Bhattathiri had to travel to Mumbai to get proper tools for calligraphy or had to improvise. But ideas would come to him effortlessly. These days, he makes a Facebook post daily with calligraphed jottings on something, highlighting a letter in it. The shape and the pattern of depiction keep changing, with the work giving a distinctive feel.
Bhattathiri’s calligraphy for popular books and titles of television shows has earned him applause. Animators and designers have come to use it as a versatile tool.
