It is an art that originated in Maharashtra and is close to extinction. But, artists in Chennai have chosen to give Chithrakathi a new lease of life, albeit in a different form.
The exhibition ‘Inner Flow’, which was inaugurated recently, showcases Bharatha-k-koothu— usually performed in Draupathi Amman temples, using Chithrakathi. The folk art has been depicted using modern materials and elements.
Chithrakathi is an ancient art that has its roots in Kudal in Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra, dating back to the 17th century. Along with leather shadow puppets and string puppets, a series of pictures or chithra were used to narrate stories then.
On the other hand, Bharatha-k- koothu, a popular folk art in Northern Tamil Nadu, is the story of Mahabharata enacted by folk artistes in traditional costumes, narrating the stories partly in songs and partly in dialogues during the annual temple festival.
Talking about the exhibition, Balaji Sreenivas — one of the artists whose works are part of the event, says, “Chithrakathi is on the verge of extinction and we are trying to revive it in Chennai through a collection of works by several artists. They have painted different episodes of Bharatha-k-koothu using the visual idiom of Chithrakathi, making the flow of light and life illuminate both arts, one dying and another vibrant.” He adds that by transposing the art from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu, the artists have made an attempt to revive Chithrakathi.
The participant artists include Indira Seshadri, Meenakshi Madan, Rajasri Manikandan, V Shanmughapriya, Shobha Rajagopalan, S Suresh and Vaishnavi Srikanth.
Along with the works of these artists, the art also presents the modern Tamil poetry of Shankara Ramasubramanian.
(The exhibition is on at Lalit Kala Akademi till September 16. For details, contact 044 28291692.)
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