Thrissur:As most of the fun and fervour of Onam festival this year was taken away by the COVID pandemic, Kerala missed Thrissur’s own ‘Pulikali’, a popular street art form performed on the 4th day of Onam.
There were no prancing tigers, no rustic drum beats or moving floats in Thrissur Swaraj Round on Thursday, the fourth Onam day this time. But thousands of people watched Pulikkali, the hallmark street pageant, from their home.
The street performance is done by people who paint their bodies as tiger or leopard, wear tiger masks and dance to the accompanying rhythm to entertain crowds during the festivities of Onam, especially in Thrissur district of Kerala.
The term literally translates from Malayalam as Tiger (Puli), play/dance (Kali) and the performers are colloquially called ‘Pulikal’.
There was no cheering or waving of the crowds enjoying ‘Puli Kali’ anywhere near the Swaraj Round in the centre of Thrissur City, in Kerala, this Onam. But there is no Onam for a Thrissur-ite without Puli Kali.
So, this time, the Ayyanthole Desam Puli Kali group conducted the Puli Kali online complying with all the COVID guidelines, by performing from their own respective places going digital.
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When the ‘Tigers’ danced online, shaking the tiger-painted pot-bellies to the rhythm, from their own homes, the fans of this street art from all over the world watched live and enjoyed. Puli Kali enthusiasts were all in awe and appreciated the performers’ efforts to not give it a miss, even amid COVID regulations.
In the digital Puli Kali concerted as a result of the determined ‘Tigers’ from Thrissur, as many as twenty ‘Tigers’ shook their pot bellies, and danced. A variety of ‘Pulis’ performed in the digital Puli Kali, including the Pulli puli, the Varayan puli and the Elumban puli, joining live from different places at the same time on screen, shaking their waist bells.
Meanwhile, without missing the annual customary visit, the Karimpuli (Black tiger) of Viyyur Centre could be spotted at the Swaraj Round in Thrissur, this time also. The Karimpuli broke the coconut and offered it to the Ganapathy deity at Naduvilal, in Swaraj Round as it is done every year.
The ‘Puli’ wore gloves and held a placard of ‘Break the Chain’ campaign on one hand and a hand sanitiser on the other, and called for fighting the COVID 19 pandemic with all might, before leaving the city.
The ‘Tigress’ (Pen Puli - a woman who performs the tiger dance) who had performed representing Viyyur Desam in Puli Kali last year also, visited Swaraj Round this Onam. Parvathy V Nair, a native of Ernakulam, was the female representation in this folk street art.
All the tigers danced and called for fighting COVID pandemic by complying with the precautionary guidelines in front of the cameras. The return of tigers and the tigress to their homes marks the conclusion of Onam festivities in Thrissur amid COVID regulations and spike in the cases.
