Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Capturing a colourful tradition of Onattukara

TRADITIONAL FERVOUR: The village community taking part in the Kettukazhcha festival.

`Kettukazhcha' (Pageantry), a documentary film by V. Sasi Kumar, will be screened at the Brave International Festival in Warsaw, Poland.

Titled "Brave Festival — against cultural exiles," this year's edition of the festival focusses on "Asian voices." The festival is being held from July 7 to 16, with screening of films, theatre performances, concerts and workshops on entries from different parts of Asia.

The festival seeks to promote people of courage who have been brave enough to communicate through art, addressing the problem of dying cultures, forgotten identity and spirituality of old cultures, cultural minorities, and values either left behind, turned down, sold or ruined.

Hanna Polak's Children of Leningradzki, Pankaj Rishi Kumar's The Play is On and Bappa Sen's Folk Bengal are among the films to be screened at the festival.

Kettukazhcha, a 24-minute documentary, captures the spectacular and colourful tradition of the residents of Onattukara in south Kerala where the Ashtamudi, Kayamkulam and Sasthamkotta backwaters merge. "It is a land of unique festivals and art forms. The remnants and heritage of village life here are of great anthropological, sociological and historical interest," says Sasi Kumar, an engineer with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

Majestic horse and chariot structures that gives the name "Kettukazhcha" is the hallmark of this festival, celebrated in Devi temples with songs and drumbeats, embodying a vibrant collective life and triumphant labour power. This post-harvest festival, with its rituals and performances addressed to the village goddess, also reverberate and resonate with the energy and power of the fertility rites of yore.

"Kettukazhcha" is not an easy art, Sasi Kumar says. It is a long, laborious process and represents the efforts, dreams and anxieties of the whole village community. The process of construction of the chariot involves collective participation of the village. These huge chariots of more than 70-ft height are built by the villagers and drawn through the paddy fields of the village to the festival site. Here, each village community recreates the world anew and redefines their ecology according to their conceptions. The sense of fraternity and unity inherent in them animate the village life for the year to come. The lands through which the chariot wheels passes will once again receive seeds and the ploughs will upturn it.

The documentary draws a stark contrast between village festivals such as these that are facing extinction and modern life in which the individual is gradually withdrawing into the seclusion of one's home with the dream of creating a world of one's own. Sonny Joseph, who has done the cinematography, has ably assisted Sasi Kumar. The documentary was shown at the Yamagatha Festival in Japan and SIGNS 2005 in Thiruvananthapuram. Kettukazhcha is Sasi Kumar's maiden documentary. He has worked with filmmakers G. Aravindan and John Abraham.

GIRISH MENON

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