Normally every year on the fourth day of Onam, the streets in Swaraj Round in Kerala’s Thrissur witness the roaring of colourful pulis (men painted like tigers) as part of Pulikali, a tiger-hunt themed folk street performance. Unfortunately, this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all festivals, including the biggest temple festival of Thrissur Pooram, stand cancelled. But thanks to a local organisation called Ayyanthole Desam, a virtual event was arranged for all Pulikali lovers.
A 17-member Pulikali team performed virtually on Thursday and the event was streamed live on the Ayyanthole Desam Pulikali Samghatakha Samithi Facebook page. According to the organisers, over 25,000 people signed in to watch the live event. The Pulikali team members ranged from 13-year-old Sayanth, who performed as Kuttipuli (tiger cub), to 65-year-old Unnikrishnan.
Ayyanthole Desam organising committee joint secretary Sreekrishnan told TNM, “Pulikali is in the blood of every Thrissur native. Due to the pandemic, this year we missed Thrissur Pooram and other important festivals. So we decided to conduct Pulikali as a virtual event so that people don’t miss this also in the name of COVID-19.”
Sreekrishnan added, “Pulikali is a celebration that is usually held among big groups of people. But during this pandemic period, we can’t conduct such events. We hope that the virtual Pulikali provided a unique experience to all Pulikali fans.”
“Usually every year we spend about Rs 12 to 15 lakh to organise the Pulikali,” he said.
Kannan Parampath, Ayyanthole Desam secretary and one of the performers, said, “Each puli performed at home in front of a mobile phone which was telecast live through Zoom. It was a challenge to perform in the limited space, but we proved that the event can be conducted online. The full version of the event will be uploaded on YouTube soon.”
“Before the programme, we conducted a trial of Pulikali in virtual space and found that it was possible to be done online,” said Kannan.
He added that this time there was even a daughter who painted her father as a puli.
“Parvathi, who is a student, got her father Shaji Govind ready for the Pulikali event,” said Kannan.
Normally seven groups take part in Pulikali. In 2017 and 2019, Ayyanthole Desam was the runner-up in the event. In 2017, women participated in the event painted as tigers for the first time. Last year too, three women tigers performed at the event.