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A peep into the life of the ‘Sultan of Beypore’

THEME CUiSINE: Moplah fare is on offer at the Ranga Shankara in Bangalore

BANGALORE: Ranga Shankara is abuzz with activity — a vibrant display of photographs, the heady aroma of Moplah cuisine and “Sangathi Arihnya,” a theatrical vignette of stories by Malayalam writer the late Vaikom Muhammed Basheer. It is celebrating the writer’s birth centenary.

Images associated with Basheer — his black thick-rimmed glasses, prized gramophone and records, and easy chair — come alive in the black-and-white photographs of Punaloor Rajan.

The person behind the Moplah food festival at the Ranga Shankara café is Anju Sudarshan. Anju, who hails from North Malabar, has planned a theme cuisine to go with the plays performed. “When there were Greek tragedies, there was Greek cuisine,” she says.

“There will be simple, home-cooked, non-fussy Moplah dishes everyday — fish biriyani, green payasam, pathiri (stuffed rice chapatti), puttu and kadala curry — right through the plays and after that.

Mr. Rajan tells a visually evocative story through his frameless photographs of Basheer.

On display are also photographs of significant people who were part of Basheer’s literary, personal and political circles. A classic shot is that of Basheer at the window of a compartment in a train.

There are also photographs of his wife Fatima Bibi or “Fabi” as Basheer called her, son Anees Basheer, meetings of progressive writers at the Writers Co-operative Society, and literary figures such as O.V. Vijayan and V.K. Narayanankutty Nair. Eye-catching are the frames showing Basheer lying in his easy chair, beedi in hand, and strolling in his coconut groves at Beypore near Kozhikode.

One can also get hold of brochures carrying a personal account of Basheer and an interview with the writer.

The Moplah food festival and photo exhibition that attempt to encapsulate the literary and cultural environment of the life and times of the “Sultan of Beypore” are on till April 27, which is also the last day of staging of “Sangathi Arihnya!” (Have you heard!) at the Ranga Shankara.

For tickets, call 9945108610.

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