With the hustle and bustle of election campaigns coming to an end, it is time for R K Peetakandi Punnasery, an acclaimed Ottanthullal exponent, who was conducting ‘thullal’ programmes for the past few months to pep up the election campaigns of the UDF candidates in Vadakara and Kozhikode constituencies, to take a break, giving a bit of relief to his physical impairment. With his disabled right hand, the mesmerising performance he put up in the campaign made him the cynosure of all eyes.
Clad in white ‘jubba’ and ‘kasavumundu’, the 70-year-old artiste was standing on the verandah of his house, when this reporter contacted him, with a smile on his cherubic face. When asked how he manages to write thullal poems and perform them on the stage, he says, “I have trained myself to write with my left hand and show ‘mudras’ with the same hand itself, having lost the influence of my right hand owing to polio’. Driven by the philosophy that ‘Strength is life and weakness is death, he moulded himself into a charismatic identity among his fellow-beings. During these days I hardly got any time to relax. At times, I was too tired, but never did I brood over my debility all the time. I don’t want to become a defeatist anywhere. That is how I got almost 100 disciples in North Malabar," says the veteran artist.
It was in 1953 that he got inspired by the drama Kharavo, staged by the Alavil Deshiya Kalasamithy and decided to do something significant for society.
“Kharavo left a spark inside me. The drama was then staged in the background of the emancipation movement, in which a girl named Plora was brutally killed by police. A character in that drama called Thullalkaran Raman narrated the entire incident to the audience with a wonderful thullal performance,” says Peetakandi.
After watching that drama, Peetakandi seriously thought of shaping this art form in such a way that it could create social awareness among the public.
“I staged my first election performance for UDF candidate K Muraleedharan in the parliamentary election. I had slight jitters as it was my first performance in favour of a particular political party. I even doubted whether any Opposition people among the audience might pelt stones at me. Luckily, no untoward incident occurred there. I did my programmes only for the UDF. Yet I was honoured in the ‘Janapaksham’ programme organised by the Narikuni CPM local committee,” says Peetakandi.
“My art coveys certain messages to society. It can trumpet the glory of political parties more effectively than banners, posters and other hoardings do, besides their flaws too,” says Peetakandi. In 2013, the Government of India honoured him by conferring an award for his remarkable contributions to society.
In this election, the T P Chandrasekharan murder was the major highlight. Assault on women, corruption and political brutality were also the major ingredients of the ‘feast’.
Apart from election campaigns, he conducts programmes for the art wing of the Excise Department, AIDS Control Society and for ‘Anweshi’, a women’s empowerment organisation.