A colourful, rectangular piece of cloth held by two men is lowered slightly to reveal the mask-like face of the artiste on stage before it is pulled up again. The peekaboo game continues with tantalising glimpses of the actor while the percussion drums up excitement, building up anticipation for a Kathakali play about to be staged. Explaining this interesting prelude to a Kathakali play is a slim graphic novelette, Why is he hiding behind the curtain?, which takes readers above the age of eight into the colourful artistic heritage of Ottanthullal and Kathakali, traditional performing arts of Kerala.
Written by Arun Narayan and illustrated by Sanusha US, the comic is a delightful introduction to the art forms, perhaps the first of its kind in Kerala, if not India. Arun, convener of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Palakkad chapter, says this kind of novelette has been on his mind since 2016. He happened to notice that the audience for traditional art forms mostly comprised senior citizens and there was a perceptible lack of youngsters who did not know and did not care to know about these art forms.
Sanusha, an architect, explains that initially, the plan was to bring out a graphic novelette on the lives of local heroes, art forms, names of places and so on. The pandemic forced them to take a break. Last year, a jewellery chain approached a design house Sanusha is associated with, to design activity pages or books for children that would keep th.
