Potpourri of cultural and folk arts

For visitors to the three-day National Folk Festival of Kerala (NFFK) organised by the Kerala State Youth Welfare Board in the city, apart from the folk art forms, what attracted many at the do was the village ambience. There were outlets displaying clay pot making, crafts with coconut fronds, sand painting sessions and bonji vellam (lime juice) and paal sarbath (milk sarbath) stalls.
The art forms included cultural events from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal and Karnataka.The third edition of the annual festival had dance, music, drama and street magic performances. According to the programme co-ordinator Karamana Hari, the event helped create a space for artistes of traditional arts. Other highlights of the fest were traditional puppetry from Rajasthan, a performance by street singer Babu Shankaran from Kozhikode, ‘Bolivian’ play by Little Earth School of Theatre, Malappuram, musical performance Iniyulla Kalam Naam Padandirunnal, garba dance from Gujarat and dance theatre adaptation of Edasseri’s Poothapattu directed by late film director Lenin Rajendran.
Photo courtesy: Satheeshan Karicheri