KOCHI: It would seem like the beloved author has come alive again. ‘Neermathalam Muthal Gulmohar Vare,’ the ongoing photo exhibition by Razack Thazhathangadi, takes the visitor on a colourful pictorial journey though the life and times of the late Kamala Surayya - right from the Nalappatt house where she began life as Aami and Kamala, the transition to Madhavikutty and Kamala Surayya, to the final journey. “I titled it thus as those are the beginning and endpoints of her life - the Neermathalam tree, the only surviving character of her writings which is still there, to the Gulmohar at the Palayam church under which she was laid to rest.”
Razack travelled to the Punnayurkulam recently where the writer spent her childhood and captured what now remains of her memories - the tree and a stone Sarppakkavu with a lamp titled - ‘The flame which died out.’
Razack has been a regular presence at almost all memorable moments of the writers’s life and thus most of the 55 photographs displayed have been clicked by him. There are also a few which are Razack’s exclusives - like that of her conversion ceremony to Islam. “I was the only photographer present during the ceremony,” recalls Razack.
As you go through the photographs, what immediately strikes you is her sheer zest for life, as writer, mother and woman. In one you see her among the top writers of Malayalam, while in another she is busy getting mehndi done on her hands, happy as any of the young girls around. The exhibition is also testimony to her immense popularity - among family, fellow-writers and above all the public. Poignant is the photograph of her constant companion and nurse Ammu, grieving over her picture as all her belongings are being handed over to the Sahitya Akademi. The very last photograph depicts the carved wooden chair which Kamala Surayya used throughout her writing life, about which she had given specific instructions not to be removed.
Razak Thazhathangadi has been a photojournalist with the Madhyamam Daily for more than two decades. He has received several photography awards and photojournalism awards and has presented two exhibitions earlier - Gramakkazhcha and Sthreesakthi.
The exhibition is on at the Press Club Art Gallery and will end on May 31, the death anniversary of Kamala Surayya.
ashaprakash@expressbuzz.com