KOZHIKODE: As the city dresses up for the 55th edition of the Kerala State School Arts Festival, a veteran who has been a regular presence at the festivals for the past four decades is gripped with sorrow for he cannot be part of the festival this time though it is being held in his home city, Kozhikode.
Ramankutty Nair Peettakkandi, popularly known as R N Peettakkandi, is an ‘Ottanthullal’ teacher and has been training students for school arts festivals since 1971. Having undergone an angioplasty, the 71-year-old is at rest at his residence at Punnassery.
His polio-affected hand never dampened his spirits. Peettakkandi made his debut in the State School Arts Festival held in Alappuzha in 1971. He then introduced on stage Prabhakaran Punnassery, who has now become an eminent ‘Thullal’ artiste and the recipient of many awards, including the Kunjan Nambiar Smaraka Award and Kalamandalam Award.
“We staged ‘Chirukandan Charitham,’ written by Tharokkandy Damodaran Master. The theme was the neglect suffered by the Harijan community in society and the need to uplift them through schemes like lumpsum grant,” Pettakkandi remembers.
After that he brought his students to the state festivals of 1974, 1975, 1976 and 2011. Besides, he attended numerous state festivals with Thullal teacher Prabhakaran Punnassery, who was his student, including the last one held in Palakkad. An artiste on his own, R N Peettakkandi was born in 1944. He never had formal training of the artform. Being a quick learner, he could grasp the features of the art without anybody teaching him. In his childhood he had seen his grandfather performing Thullal, observing which he absorbed the essence of the artform.
Apart from Thullal, his keen observation and unflagging enthusiasm made him a master of many artforms including Kolkkali, Kadhaprasangam, Vilkalamela and Oppana. He has a Kolkkali kalari to train students near his home.
Says Prabhakaran Punnassery, “He has no guru and he has not been formally trained. But he shines in all the areas of Thullal better than any trained artiste. And he also has the speciality of being a Thullal guru who does not perform on his own. He is master to countless talented students.”
Arts festivals might have gradually turned into money-making events where the art takes a backseat and the business takes the front one. But R N Peettakkandi is an exception as he has never found it lucrative. Besides, he has trained numerous students with poor economic background, free of cost. “The pleasure of teaching talented students is inexplicable,” he says.
Apart from training, he also writes Thullal verses and makes all the required materials and costumes including kireedam and kacha. His son Rajeevan helps him with the work.
As Kozhikode is playing host to the biggest arts festival of Asia, R N Peettakkandy is critical of the way the festivals are made into events of reckless competition and nepotism. “As there is grace marks for the prizes, the parents and children are in a frenzy to win prizes. And judgments are often flawed as marks are given not to the student who is performing, but the high-profile master who is singing for the student.
The item should be made a group one. The alternative judge panel which is being experimented this time should have started from the school level,” he says.
He is also against the institutionalisation of the artform. “People have often avoided me because I was not from Kalamandalam. Earlier, Thullal was a tool of social criticism.
Later the insistence that only the ones written by Kunjan Nambiar could be staged limited its scope. Kalamandalam style has been set as a standard and it became obligatory for one to follow that style,” says Peettakkandy.
