Onam has seen several ‘modernisation’ over the years. But 2026 has ushered in an age where the Malayali festival is gaining new interpretations. Both in the digital and physical spheres.
Plastic pookkalams are passe. Enter digital pookkalams.
AI-designed shorts and kurtas are becoming fashion statements. Even Onam songs and videos are being created using AI.
Amidst this, chefs are deconstructing the Onam sadya and its elements in intriguing ways. Fortunately or unfortunately, AI hasn’t entered the kitchen yet.
This Onam definitely comes with a quirky side. Here is a quick scan.
The viral virtual pookkalam
The Malayalam keyboard Manglish has emerged as a trendsetter this Onam. Its virtual pookkalam has awakened the child within Malayalis across the world.
When it was released just two days ago, it slowly picked up users from
several corners of the world, creating colourful designs. Soon, it gained momentum through word of mouth.
The process is simple, which is perhaps the primary reason it went viral. Flowers such as thumba, hibiscus, blue pea and mandaram are available. Users can also choose from nine designs. And all it takes is a few clicks to make your own pookkalam. Fun timepass, indeed.
Over two lakh people have created unique designs on the site by Friday evening. The goal, Manglish says, is one crore pookkalams.
Onam on the nails
There is barely enough room for a dot of polish. Somehow, people are fitting a pookkalam there.
Onam nail art is getting increasingly detailed, with creators bringing festival imagery to their fingertips. A chethi pookkalam appears in red and floral patterns, while other sets use gold accents and kasavu-inspired combinations.
Some take on the challenge of painting an entire pookkalam on a single nail. Others spread the story across the hand: Kathakali faces on the middle and ring fingers, a woman in an off-white saree with a gold border and jasmine in her hair on another, and a tiny Onam sadhya served on a banana leaf on the pinky.
Several of these designs are painted entirely freehand, with artists drawing inspiration from reference images online. And for those who would rather skip the time-consuming brushwork, Onam-themed press-on nail sets are also finding takers.
Pookkalam, loop by loop
Champakam. Nanthyarvattam. Kolambi poovu. Chendumalli. Rose. Nithyakalyani. Mullappoo.
Only, none of them came from a garden.
Crochet makers are building pookkalams out of yarn this Onam, reproducing familiar flowers stitch by stitch and arranging them much like fresh blooms.
Some have stretched the idea across all 10 days, putting out an Athapookkalam series from Atham to Thiruvonam and showing followers how each flower is made.
Others are offering crochet flower kits with marigold, jasmine, lotus and vadamalli for those who want to try assembling one at home.
Apart from lasting well beyond the festival, the yarn version also does away with the need to pluck fresh flowers every morning. The same set can be rearranged, reused and brought back the next day — even for the next Onam.
‘Naadan’ with a twist
The menu starts sounding suspicious the moment moru becomes a popsicle.
At an Onam brunch in Thiruvananthapuram, Arsha Mohan, founder of Pepper & Lilly, and Ayesha Tabassum, founder of Blumi’s, are taking the sadhya apart and putting it back together in forms that would look completely out of place on a banana leaf: banana chips as chaat, rasam inside pani puri, beetroot pachadi as macaron, pineapple kichadi worked into creme brûlée, and coconut in tiramisu.
The brunch, based on an idea by architect Matt, will be held at Blumi’s Cafe on August 22.
Kochi has its own experiments. Mad Over Ice Cream (MOIC) near Forum Mall is offering palada and pazham ice creams together as an Onam sundae served in a steel tiffin. And the banana, often the last untouched item after a heavy sadhya, has found a flashier role there as a banana-shaped banoffee ice-cream tart, coated in white chocolate, hand-painted and filled with house-made toffee sauce. Yeah, the skin too is edible. They call it the ‘Pazhamlicious’.
Cuteness overload
Here, it gets interesting. Pet Onam videos take effort and careful manoeuvring. Cats, decked up in Onakkodis, and dogs, adorned in mundus and jasmine flowers, sway to the rhythm of Onam songs.
They are obviously in their own world, curiously looking around to see what all the fuss is about, while pet parents try to get the best video as a song plays in the background.
Sometimes, they appear to play along to the lyrics. But whatever the results, videos of these cutie-patooties are a sensation this Onam season.
Rock & Roll Onam
Onapattu is also transforming. This time, in a rock-and-roll avatar.
The song Maveli is Coming — Rajavu Varunne, which hit streaming platforms on August 14, is packed with a powerful fusion of EDM, hard rock and Kerala rhythms.
The song tries to redefine the ideals that prevailed in Kerala when Mahabali was the ruler. It brings ideas of equality, dignity and compassion to a new generation in a resonant way. Singers Anand Sreeraj and Anila Rajeev lend their voices to the music and lyrics by Shreedhar B S.
Envisaged as an anthem for the new age, the song’s powerful lyrics draw a contrast between reality and a world where equity prevails.
Onam brain rot
This can be polarising. Mahabali is flying through the skies, families and friends sing along and dance to Onam songs, pookkalams are being savoured like sadya, and women in kasavu sarees perform gymnastics on swings.
This is how Onam is celebrated according to most generative AI platforms. The absurd clips, however, have become an unlikely part of the season, with many Malayali content creators sharing what Gemini or ChatGPT created for them this Onam.
The songs are another adventure — familiar voices belt out lyrics with Malayalam words so badly mispronounced and synced that you may need subtitles for your own language.
Even classics such as ‘Maveli naadu vaanidum kaalam’ have not been spared an AI makeover.
Funny? Absolutely. The LOL kind.
Necessary? Hmm... that’s another question.