As part of Travel photography, here our author has made a beautiful photo sequence of a famous act of Kerala’s culture i.e, Ottan-Thullal: the unified expressions act.
”The combination of multiple emotional characters on a single face is always entertaining each and everyone to be happier”
Ottan Thullal
Ottan Thullal is one of the traditional dances and poetic performances. Great Kunchan Nambiyar introduced this in the 18th century. Ottan Thullal is a solo performance made by an artist with full make up of greenish face, colorful costumes, and a crown on his head, from which he can express what he feels to convey to the viewers. He acts and dances by himself to the dancing lyrics.
Kunchan Nambiar
Kunchan Nambiar was playing the mizhavu for a Chakyar Koothu and he slightly fell asleep in between the performance. Then the Chakyar started to make fun of him on the stage. As revenge, Kunchan Nambiar developed a script in one night, which could entertain the audience like Chakya Koothu and he named it “Ottan Thullal”. Thullal is mainly classified into three, Ottan Thullal, Parayan Thullal, and Sheethankan Thullal.
Here is the photo sequence of an act of Ottan thullal.
Roshni S Prasad, Alappuzha, Kerala, India
Copyrights:
All the photos and text in this post are copyright of Roshni S Prasad. Their reproduction, full or part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
