KOCHI: Unlike in the west, school textbooks in Kerala are yet to give students an idea of the state's age-old art and culture, filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan said on Sunday. He was releasing the book 'Insight and Outlook' authored by scholar R Nandakumar.
Adoor said such a phenomenon also distanced the young generation from Kerala’s classical performing arts such as koodiyattam and kathakali. "Such detachment from regional culture has led to the ‘concretisation’ of ancient temples, which are thus losing their vintage character," he said, adding, "It may be to cater to modern facilities that permanent roofs come up in open spaces of several shrines. They go against not just traditional equations of architecture, but the overall aesthetics too," he said.
The Kerala Lalithakala Akademi has brought out the compilation of essays on contemporary art of Kerala. Adoor handed over the first copy of the 250-page book to Bengaluru-born artist Pushpamala N. "The book comes from a writer who is sharp in his observations and witty in his remarks. Art colleges teach much about the Mughal and Pahari arts of the hills upcountry, but the Deccan art of southern India remains somewhat neglected," said Pushpamala.