The epic Mahabharata is called the mother of all stories because it consists of a glimpse of anything ever written. Owing to the all-encompassing nature of the epic, there have been several interpretations and representations of it over the centuries. However, a few artists from the State are probably the first to give it a visual representation in the traditional Kerala mural style on uncut rolls of canvas.
The Kerala Art Gallery is an online community of artists, mostly mural artists, dedicated to popularising the traditional style and development of artists.
“The project Mahabharata started from an order by a client. But then we realised its importance and took it to a much larger canvas literally,” said Unnikrishnan, the Art Director and Coordinator of Kerala Art Gallery.
The work began in 2022 and was completed recently. “It took us just three months to paint. But the research took longer. We had to study Mahabharata extensively to decide what to include, how to include and to convert scenes to the Kerala mural style. Finalising the frames were also an enormous task,” said Arun Aravind, who led the crew of five artists in this massive endeavour. His students Sreenivasan A. P, Aneesh K. C, Jibeesh K. and Sreejith S. supported him in the almost one-and-half year long effort.
“We ensured that at least one scene from each of the ‘Parvas’ in Mahabharata are included and the flow of story telling is not lost. Finally we have 43 scenes painted over 125-feet-long and two-feet-wide canvas,” Mr. Arun added. However, all the frames are not of the same size. Some are short, while some are around three feet long.
The Kerala Art Gallery has been an active community for the last few years. Arun Aravind, an alumni of the Guruvayur Devaswom Institute of Mural Painting, has been in the field for over 15 years. “We do not believe in commercialising our work or taking the easy way out. Hence each frame was done painstakingly slowly and in the real Kerala mural style,” Mr. Unnikrishnan added.
The Mahabharata mural can now be found at the base of Kerala Art Gallery at Kottakkal in Malappuram.
