The stronghold of traditional art in modern times is neither waning nor losing significance. The Kalamezuthu Festival-Delhi, a weeklong exhibition organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi here, was a testimonial proof. The festival, which emphasised the significance of traditional art form of Kerala, has concluded, but made a notable attempt to build bridges between the old and new forms as well as the relation between resource management and strategies of rural communities.
LKA Chairman K.K. Chakravarty said the festival’s uniqueness stems from the fact that Kalamezuthu is a rural traditional art form practised mostly by marginalised communities with painting, dance, music, procession and ritual.
“Kalamezuthu is associated with community-based knowledge and is used in preserving our pristine ecology. It is also used in resource management and in protecting our vanishing flora and fauna ,” said Dr. Chakravarty.
The event commenced with Bhadra Kali Kalam dedicated to the destruction of demon Darika by Kali. Other kalams dedicated to Aswarooda Ayyapan Kalam, Valiya Naga Kalam were also made. The festival culminated with Shaktheya Kalam on December 14.
Kalamezuthu has its origins in the Southern part of India, especially Kerala and started around the 4th Century. Known as an ancient art form of social expression, Kalamezuthu has played a significant role in spreading knowledge among the people.
Describing Kalamezhuthu as a parapsychological, psychosomatic experience of transformation of the limited human personality, Dr. Chakravarty said the cycle and sequence of Avahana, Aradana and Udwasana, invocation, worship, and erasure are symbolic of the eternal cycle of birth and death, creation, preservation and destruction.
He added: “The geometric and figural patterns of circles and squares, the diagrammatic presentation of nagakkalam or padmam, composed of inter-coiled snakes or lotus medallions, the spoke wheels or tantrik chakras, the multi-pointed stars or the figural drawings of super imposed globes, cylinders, squares and triangles are but the two simultaneous dimensions, abstract and concrete, of reality, presented as amoortha kalam and roopakalam.”
