CHENNAI: Masks of Spiderman and Batman are passe now. An exhibition at Dakshina Chitra brings different types of masks from all over South India, portraying various characters from the mythological stories.The masks from Kerala depict Teyyam, a form of worship through dance. This dance is performed to propitiate deities. It is well-known for its rich ornamentation and highly structured headgear. The dancer focuses on intrigue makeup for differentiation of characters. Masks of Padayani, another dance form in Kerala, are made from lumpy pods of the areca-nut tree and other natural products. Cherial masks from Andhra Pradesh were made of plastic and modernised with artificial colours. The most common characters depicted were Rama, Sita, Hanuma, Ganesha and others.Karnataka’s Bhuktha are made of metals which makes them resistant in their thickest parts and brittle in their ornaments and prominent elements like horns, ears and tongues. After the bhuta kola ceremony, the people of Udupi places the masks in temples where they are worshiped along with the god. The different types of masks displayed from Tamil Nadu were the Aravan masks, Dristi Boomai and Narashima Mugavattu. “The Narashima Mugavattu is about 200 years old and it belongs to the Tanjore district,” says Poochi Venkat, the archive consultant of Dakshinachitra. This mask is believed to have been made of paper, cloth and wood. This exhibition is on at Dakshina Chitra till May 31 from 10am to 6 pm.
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