Songs in praise of leading Islamic saint Sheikh Ahmed Rifai dominated the venue where two dozen odd higher secondary teams from across the State performed Duff Muttu in a tight competition on Thursday.
A large crowd witnessed the event on the hartal day.
Wearing the traditional milky white dress of darz muhallim (students), the Duff Muttu teams performed in a tantalising fashion, taking care not to deviate from the basic theme of devotion. “Unlike other Mappila arts, Duff Muttu is performed in a devotional mood,” said Mappila art exponent Shameem Sivapuram. Although the Rifai Rathib rented the air in most performances, Gilani Rathib and Shadili Rathib too had takers among the duff teams. “These days there’s much focus on the songs. The onus is on the lead singer to take the members through a pure devotional path,” said Mappila art exponent Suhail Blathur.
Over the years, 10-member Duff Muttu teams have begun to take a semi-circle formation, leaving behind the two-line tradition. Without deviating drastically from the basic story of either Sheikh Abdul Khadir Gilani, Sheikh Ahmed Rifai or Sheikh Abdul Hasan Shadili, the teams performed single beat, triple beat, quintuple beat, hand beat and swing beat with their duffs.
Leading trainers such as Koya Kappad, Sayed Alavi, Dawood Kannur and Noufal Alapuzha taught their duff teams not to smile while deftly swinging duffs between their knees and foreheads. “Because devotion is the essence of this art,” said Mr. Shameem.
