പൂതനും തിറയും

The festival season spans over a period of six months from December to May in Valluvanad, the north central part of Kerala. Poothan and Thira is one of the most popular traditional temple arts of Kerala that is being performed during this festival season. Usually, Poothan and Thira is performed by the members of the Mannan community. A typical Poothan Thira performance comprising mostly shouts and wild gestures. Poothan player usually wear in bright (usually red), tightly woven costumes embellished with gold- coloured trinkets. Their larger than life headdresses with peacock features and imposing masks with stick out tongues and eyes are sure to leave an unbelievable imagination to the viewer. Thira player wears semicircular black crown mounted on his head with symbols of the goddess embossed on the same. We can see may Thira players with extra ordinary acrobatic skills who make the performance to a real treat to watch. Poothan & Thira together visits the Hindu houses of the village during festival seasons accompanied by their drummers. Villagers welcome them with regional religious formalities & it is believed that they represent the goddess who visits her devotees and blesses them This musical Documentary tries to focus at the history, tradition and performances of this vanishing art. Great care has been taken to capture the thrilling moments of performance by the artists with out loosing the rhythm and spirit. The language of the documentary is Malayalam and has duration of 21.37 minutes. The period of production is February to April 2009.