At 8 p.m. on Wednesday night, when the ‘Theechamundi’ Theyyam performance was scheduled to take place at the Malabar Christian College grounds in Kozhikode, there were only a handful of people, besides members of the performing team.
The pyre had just started to burn, and the artistes were still preparing for the performance. But as the fire burnt down to embers and the performance was about to begin two hours later, hundreds had assembled to watch the performer being dragged into the heap of embers more than a hundred times.
The performance was part of the KoCo Folk Fest being organised by the Kozhikode Corporation with the support of the Calicut University School of Folklore Studies, Thunchathezhuthachan Malayalam University, and the Kerala Folklore Academy. The festival hit the target right from day one with the ‘Theechamundi’ being the highlight.
