Thampi kannanthanam biography of albert

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EDITED BY
BITCHU KHAN
bichu666@gmail.com
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History of Malayalam cinema

Kerala: The Legacy of Visual Culture

Even much before the arrival of cinema, the people of Kerala were familiar with
moving images on the screen through the traditional art form ‘tholpavakkuthu’
(Puppet Dance). Usually exhibited at festivals of village temples, ‘tholpavakkuthu’
uses puppets made of leather with flexible joints. These joints are moved using
sticks and the shadow of these moving puppets are captured on a screen using a
light source from behind, creating dramatic moving images on the screen. Stories
from the mythology were told so, with accompanying dialogues and songs with
traditional percussions like the Chenda. ‘Tholpavakkuthu’ uses some of the
techniques widely used in cinema like the close-ups and long-shots.

Apart from the art of ‘tholpavakkuthu’, which exhibits the nature of cinema, many of
the folk arts and classical dance forms like ‘Kuthu’, ‘Koodiyattam’ and ‘Kathakali’
exhibits very high visual qualities in their form. My be this legacy of Kerala’s visual
culture lead the filmmakers of Kerala to take up cinema in a different way, rather
than mere plain story telling, than anywhere else in India, and the people of Kerala
to appreciate them.


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