Hey friends🙏🏻 In this blog, I am going to talk about my experience of the movie"Kantara- a legend" which has gained worldly fame. Kantara was originally released in kannada and it was dubbed in other languages on public demand. I personally liked the movie, the mystic experience of bhoota kola which I never knew. The dance form which influences "yakshagana".The different culture and all the mythological sayings. Kantara is totally a different experience. It has got 9.7 Imdb rating, no movie has gotton so far.
Source: Google
In this blog I am not reviewing the movie but going to talk about the "Bhoota Kola".
Bhoota means"spirit " and kola means "play" in Tulu. This is the spirit worship ritual which is followed and celebrated by Tulu- speaking people of dakshina kannada, karnataka and some places in kerela.Malenadu and kasargod.
People believe that the spirits protect the village from natural calamities. If the spirits get angry they will bring badluck.
The spirits like panjurli, vartha( sister of panjurli), kalluri, kalkuda, kordhanbu, guliga and jarandya, boobarya and many more. There are stories of heroism how they came to be worshipped.
The spirits or deiva are neither good nor bad.
The kola which is also called as "Nema" which means ceremony which takes place the whole night till dawn.
The area where the kola takes place is decorated with flowers liek jasmine, firecracker flower( Abboli).
Mainly the spirit/ deiva comes within the the man who performs the kola. The kola is performed by lower sections of the society. The performer of the bhoota kola wears a skirt of palm leaves and which burns easily in fire to perform acts with fire.
The people who are expertise in performing kola are dedicated and are proud to perform the kola. When they perform the kola,the real spirit of the deiva comes in their body for a fraction of second and they predict or forsee the future. They are worshipped with respect and dignity.
The artist get ready by applying oil on their face and bright colors and decorate their face according to their performance of the kola. The kola is the animistic ritual dance which has influenced yakshagana.
Buta kola is also called as theyyam in malyalam speaking populations.
The scheduled castes like nalika, pambada and parawa only perform the buta kola.
The kola are of other types like bandi which is same as kola and in the performance, a chariot is dragged by the dancer.
The other one is the agelu-tambila which is limited to the family people and they perform feasts like rice, dishes, meat and alcohol on plaintain leaves.
Each family organises kola and are limited to it. Other people from village/ town are invited to witness the event.
A saying of Tulunadu:
"Nambidinayan koir budaye nambandiyan nambave(ie) "I shall not leave the ones who believe in me and shall make the nonbelievers believe in me".
Hence you believe it or not, the cult of spirit worship is not going anywhere.
The kantara showed the king who needed peace.He left everything all his valueable posessions, all his kingdom in order to search for peace. Once he was traversing in woods, he heard a sword like voice. When he reached near that sound, he found a stone in form of god. He found his peace of mind and prayed to the god. Then all the tribals of the village came and told that the god could not be taken away from them.
The king told that he was taking the god for his peace of mind. Then the deiva/ guliga appeared in one of the persons and told that the god could not be taken away from the people. But king requested so the deiva said that till how much far his voice is going, that much land should be gifted to the villagers and so the king agreed. And took the god with him and constructed a temple.In the movie, the varaha roopam (the wild boar) is workshipped in the form of deiva.
Kantara climax is the main part and the acting has blown away my mind. The dance moves, the story, the background score.
Do watch the movie and do read the blog. Thanks.
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