Some dates in life have more size and meaning than others. It is the Onam season of many years ago. September 7, 2008, the day my first film Thalapav hit the theatres. It was the month of Ramadan. During Onam, I used to run around all the cinemas in Kerala. It was a journey watching the first film directed with people and getting their opinions. September 12, 2012. The second movie Ekmurri also released for Oronam. Both the films won the appreciation of the audience and central and state awards. The third film was made in 2018. Kerala flood was at the time when it was decided to release that too in September. That Onam was drowned in the flood. The later years were closed by flood and disease.
My childhood was in the villages of Palakkad. Agriculture was the main occupation of those days. There will be a harvest festival in the fields. And the hopes for tomorrow. After a sumptuous meal, one goes straight to the movie theaters. Going to town to watch new movies. The kotakas in the villages will also be filled with spectators. People will be having fun by beating and making noise, taking tickets from the line and getting inside, taking off their shirts and trunks. When the hero comes in the curtain and beats the villain to the ground, they will whistle and laugh. Just as there is a fight inside the film, sometimes there is a fight outside. However, it never lasts long. All men will settle with love. It will be pleasant to go to the open hotels and have a cup of tea. It was a combination of friendship and love. They were never bound by any religion or caste. Festivals and celebrations go hand in hand. Life and death belonged to man. The smell of sweat was the smell of earth. They intervened without cover. There were occasional slurs and slurs in their words, but it was not permanent. Love and politics flowed parallel and sometimes crossed paths. There were sages who taught that this is how things are seen in any country. She spoke of a strength to open everything without fear of anything. Truth, dharma and justice were heavy words. We used to shine its light on the children.
After the entrance exam, when I finished school, I used to run to the theater run by my father. During those holidays of Onam, you will watch the same movie every day. In the morning, he will go to the village to look for flowers to put on the flower bed. After that, he will take a bicycle and walk to the neighboring reading rooms. At noon, he comes home sweating. After lunch, back to the theater. In fact, those journeys shaped me. Therefore, one of the books I read that day became my first directorial venture. Its appearance was also in another Onam. It was the end of August of the year 2000 that Parappuram’s novel Paravas in the sky was directed as a serial for Kairali channel. It was Onam that day too. That television serial won 37 awards both big and small in Kerala and outside. Rather than the awards, we celebrated the moment the audience was waiting for after each episode. It was repeated at 27 weeks. The audience, who have seen the villainous roles he played since he started as an actor, appreciated a lot knowing that he did such a serial. It was the continuation of that serial with turban, vacancy and a notorious boy.
In the atmosphere of Palakkad, the season of Onam was also that of Onam. Many spectators will come to watch the fight. After plowing and pinching in the month of Cancer, the threshers will come to the field and shake hands after performing Mayabhyasa. The game continues until one of the players is beaten and loses the game at the whistle of the Chathikaran, who controls the game with folded arms. In Parali and with his friend Kumaran, he would go to Pallasshana and Edathara to watch the dance. The beating of Pallasshana is a symbol of anger. A retelling of a story full of victory and defeat of a princely kingdom. It is also famous. Like vela and pooram, beating in the fields of Palakkad was seen as a form of entertainment. After the Onamthallam, we children used to repeat this thalam in the playground. The hand will spread. Block by hand. Never punch or kick. There was also truth in the game. The addition of sports and health was also to enhance the life to come. He taught that life is rich health. The first truth was the unpoisoned crops. There was a sense of justice that food is one’s life. It was a continuation of the legend that Kerala used to buy Mahabali. For us, Onam was the celebration of agriculture, harvesting and its trade. Various types of traders used to come from Tamil Nadu. They will gather at one place with cloth, sweets, kondats and household items. Even the village streets will become temporary shops. You will experience the hustle and bustle of the street vendors. The saying that all people are the same will be seen as true. For as long as humans have existed, they still want to think that Onam exists as the good of man.
The flood plagues are gone and man is back out in the open. It is raining. In some places it is a destructive wind. But hope is not lost and people are moving on, urging them to calm down. Onam is always a time of hope. It’s like a song. Nice song to listen to. Since childhood, Onam has evoked nostalgic memories of every human being. Even today, people continue to prepare it in new ways. But sometimes I see very disturbing Onams when I go out of Kerala. Outside Kerala, it is in the months after Onam here. My childhood taught me that Onam is never about any particular religion or caste. A national festival has always been celebrated. However, in some places it is feared that a legend is turning into a mere story when we see that it is being raised as a celebration of Hindus, of various castes and groups within themselves. Onam is a celebration of man and nature beyond caste and religion, which should be preserved without being forgotten.