You may not have seen the man but chances are that you have noticed the dynamics of his deft strokes. The artistry of calligrapher Narayana Bhattathiri, better known as Artist Bhattathiri, with the letters of the Malayalam alphabet has over the years graced the cover of some major literary works in the language with unique and instantly-recognisable title fonts. But his contributions go way beyond, as a dyed-in-the-wool practitioner who has been constantly pushing the limits of the script itself and imbuing it with a visual grace and elegance for over four decades now.
“I do not think much when I wield my calligraphy brush or pen. What you see on paper simply flows,” says Bhattathiri, pausing to tug at his greying, cascading beard. As if to illustrate his point, the 60-year-old whips out a broad-nibbed metal calligraphy pen and quickly scrawls ‘ vala veeshi ’ in Malayalam with effortless execution. The clearly legible words resemble something akin to symbols in musical notation.
He recently submitted his title design for Bhoomi Malayalam campaign, which is aimed at uniting the Malayali diaspora around the world through propagation of the language under the Malayalam Mission programme to be flagged off today, on the day of Kerala Piravi.
However, when asked about the challenges he faces as an artist of lettering, he seems at a loss to find any. “I sometimes feel sad when I see the Malayalam script being marred and misused in the name of new font styles,” he says as an afterthought, standing by his work desk at his office in Vazhuthacaud. His hand-drawn word designs weave together ornamental curls, whorls, slants and loops in geometric precision to lend them a deeper aesthetic appeal beyond the semantic.
Artist Bhattathiri holding a calligraphy work
Visualisation of a new design is a process that Bhattathiri, who won the Jijki award for the best calligraphy work instituted by the South Korean government, is unable to explain in words. “I do not try to restrict myself to any stylistic format. Rather, each day, the endeavour is to experiment with something new,” he says. When he says every day, the Pandalam native certainly means it. Bhattathiri makes it a point to wake up at 3 am on the dot when “there are no distractions and there’s plenty of solitude” to ply his trade. He sketches two designs, all random and each finished in less than half an hour, and diligently posts them on his FB page ‘Bhattathiri Calligraphy’.
Bhattathiri says he adapted to conjuring up illustrations so expeditiously during his 18-odd-year stint with a Malayalam periodical and recalls it was his 2012 exhibition, Ka cha ta tha pa, at Suryakanthi Art Gallery that unfurled his works to the larger public. One of his fondest memories is having his own work in Malayalam etched in stone at a “calligraphy park” in Harbin, China. “Unlike paper, which turns into dust eventually, what’s cast in stone lasts longer,” he says, before turning to his mouse pen to resume a “commitment” that was briefly interrupted.
