Kerala - Kochi   

`Malayali mindset still feudal'

Special Correspondent

KOCHI: Remnants of feudalism refuse to leave the Malayali's mind. According to well-known Kerala painter Paris Viswanathan, the Malayali mindset is still feudal, though outwardly he might look modern and urbane.

Kochi might be a big city, but the residents have not yet acquired the urban sensibilities. When a Malayali man returns home at the end of a day, he discards his garment of modernity and progressiveness.

"He expects his wife to serve him tea as soon as he gets back home and his wife is ready with `chettaa, here's your tea'," the painter who lived in Paris for three decades commented at a news conference in Kochi on Friday.

Viswanathan was discussing why visual arts like painting did not flourish in Kerala. In his view, this was because of the feudalist culture that only promoted art forms like Mohiniyattom and Kathakali. That was why Kerala painters made their names outside Kerala.

Viswanathan is in town to launch the artist Bose Krishnamachari's installation work LaVa (Laboratory of Visual Arts) at Kashi Art Gallery, Mattancherry, on Saturday. The exhibition will be on until January 15.

Krishnamachari said he planned to set up a museum of contemporary arts on the banks of the Periyar. The artists advocated a `painting corridor' along the highway starting from the Nedumbassery airport to the city.

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