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Grama Keli 2018 commences on March 28

21-03-2018

Grama Keli 2018, a mega festival of folk arts, organised by the AWASS Thiruvampady in association with Kozhikode Nehru Yuva Kendra will commence at Harrison Theatre in Kozhikode on March 28 2018. This one-day festival that would be flagged off by famed writer UK Kumaran, is reported to feature twenty five perilled and lesser known Keralite folk artforms.
 
AWASS had staged a folk arts festival some years back that predominantly featured the talents of folk artists from ten states in the country. It was after this attempt they had begun their research on Keralite folk arts and Grama Keli is reportedly the culmination of those efforts of theirs. The body is also understood to be planning the documentation of each dying art form, as it is being staged, for future generations. 
 
The general convenor of the festival, Mr Gireesh Kumar Kallurutti said to the media that there used to be a great number of folk art forms in Kerala that were community-based, ritualistic or religious in style, most of which have been either engangered or extinct presently. 
 
According to Mr. Kallurutti, the majority of such art forms existed among the tribespeople of the land; although they could hardly find many artists that have been practising them in the tribal communities of the districts of Malapuram and Kozhikode. He added there were also art forms traditionally being practised by the folk of certain communities or castes; the practising of which was put an end to over a period of time.
 
Grama Keli organised by AWASS, acording to Mr Kallurutti, strove to ensure that the people that performed a certain art form were the traditional practitioners as against those that had learned it for commercial purposes, with a view to preserve purity. 
 
A few of the art forms, which would be staged as part of Grama Keli will be Kolkali, Pulluvanpattu, Thottampattu, Nattipattu, Koythupattu, Navorupattu, Pananpattu and Chavittunatakam. 
 
AWASS (The Association for Welfare, Education and Socio-cultural Service) is a socio-cultural welfare body based in Thiruvampady that has also been at the forefront of many a movement aimed at bringing benefits of the welfare schemes of the government for the sick.