If you want to know anything about Kerala's rich and varied tradiional art forms or about its artists, it is just a click away. Attakkalam.in, an online portal dedicated to state's rich heritage, serves as a repository of genuine, authentic information on Kerala's folk and ritual art traditions.
Attakkalam makes an effort to take the Kerala art forms beyond the staple diet of Kathakali and Mohiniyattam. It gives insights into many local traditional art forms including Chavittu Natakam, Irula Dance, Bamboo Music, Mudiyettu, Kalamezhuthu and Arabanamuttu.
"The portal is envisaged to be a one stop shop for all content related to Kerala's rich and diverse performance art forms. It will include bio-sketches and background narratives of the key players and performers,'' said Sajitha Madathil, state award winning actress and one of the driving force behind this unique portal.
According to her, the need for having an authentic repository on Kerala art forms was felt during her stintwith the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi, as the deputy secretary in charge of documentation. "While in the Akademi, whenever I wanted to show others about our art forms, the only source were private youtube videos. Though some had good visuals, they never had the kind of in depth details a serious art lover would like to have. Attakkalam is trying to address that lacunae," she said.
Underlining the importance of providing 'authentic information', Sajitha said that for Attakalam, it is one of the topmost priorities. "There are many online sources which give myriad information about various art forms. But, as a researcher who has studied the performing arts seriously, I can vouch for the fact that authenticity is of utmost importance,'' she said adding that Attakkalam will be as authentic as possible.
Attakkalm, as of now, does not give much space to classical art forms of Kerala. It has taken the definition of performance art much beyond the popular forms like Kathakali and Koodiyattam. "That was a deliberate decision. Classical forms already have a strong support system. So we felt that other traditional performing arts must be given priority. But we may add classical forms too at a later stage,'' she said.
"Our dream is to make Attakkalam a one stop data base for everything about performing artforms in Kerala,'' she said. Not an impossible dream, it seems.
