IDSFFK 2026: Documentary on Maari Theyyam Explores an Art Form at a Crossroads

A short documentary on Maari Theyyam, a ritual form performed by the Pulaya community in Kannur, has been included in the Focus Short Documentary category at the 18th International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Keralam (IDSFFK) in Thiruvananthapuram. Ramith Kunhimangalam's 31-minute film, It Was Here Before Our Time, was screened at the Sree theatre on Sunday.

The film examines Maari Theyyam as it shifts from a practice that binds a community together into something closer to a public spectacle. Ramith, who is from Kannur, said the work is rooted in the place he comes from, and noted that Maari Theyyam, unlike other Theyyam forms, does not carry their opulence.

Also known as Karkadaka Theyyam, the ritual is performed during the Malayalam month of Karkadakam, the monsoon season associated with scarcity and illness. Madayikkavu in Kannur, where the Theyyam is based, is believed to carry 101 curses; the rulers there are said to have approached Polla, a healer and magician from the Pulaya community, who wards off the village's misfortunes by drowning them in the Arabian Sea.

The performance usually involves six artistes, each portraying a distinct character — Marikkaliyan, Maamayakkaliyan, Maarikalichi, Maamayakalichi, Maarikkuliyan and Maamaayakuliyan. They dance from house to house carrying the illnesses and misfortunes of households in the palm fronds they hold, which are finally thrown into the water. The documentary observes performances held on the 16th and 17th days of Karkadakam and explains how the form links social harmony with social survival.

Ramith, a fine arts graduate, said he wanted to depict the art form with an aesthetic sense he felt was missing from most visual documentation of Maari Theyyam. He pointed out that the Theyyams do not follow a fixed path, since they are believed to be blind and deaf, and take whichever route they like. He added that he wanted his visuals to interact with nature, and observed that other Theyyams in recent years are performed on tiled floors under asbestos roofs, losing the originality of the past.

The film's painted wooden mask and light green palm-frond frills offer a stripped-down version of Theyyam without losing detail. It is steeped in shades of grey as an ode to overcast conditions, with rain playing a significant role in establishing a divine association between man and nature. Produced by actor-director Rajesh Madhavan, the documentary moves between conversations with different stakeholders in the art form and the performance itself, zooming in on the daunting depiction of Maari Theyyam amid howls and screams while explaining it from a human perspective on the divine.

Ramith said capturing something so unpredictable demands extensive planning, including research, conversations, location visits, marking possible routes and setting up frames in his mind. He described seeing his imagined sequences play out as intended as a thrilling experience. He has earlier worked as an assistant director on Don Palathra's Family and Rajesh Madhavan's Pennum Porattum.

The documentary can be read as an interaction between past and present, drawing parallels between the period before Maari Theyyam's arrival and a pandemic-like era. Ramith said the form is visually peculiar and, to him, even resembles images of the coronavirus. He also attempts to establish Mayan and African links to Maari Theyyam because of its masked traditions; while he does not present concrete evidence, the argument is woven into the film through its music, composed by Christo Xavier, who is also a co-producer.

The film seeks to hold back time's changes to Maari Theyyam, explaining how Theyyams as an art form have come to be more about photographs, videos and entertainment. Ramith said there is not much that can be done about this, and that he made the film now to show Maari Theyyam with as much integrity as he could before it evolves into something else.