Supposed to have originated in Gothuruth in Ernakulam district .
Kerala christians are mainly of two kind earler ones who was said to have followed St Thomas very immediately after Jesus Christ himself though there is historical debate on this about namboothiris becoming christians after listening to St Thomas .
Of course its very intresting to know about orthodox christians and Roman catholics CSI group etc ..iam no expert so i could be wrong .
The other major group are latin christians who got converted after Portugese rule and evangelism .
Mostly from coastal and fishermen they were called Latin christians who today are a very important constituent of Keralas christian community.
The folk art in a drama form of latin christians is the chowuttu nadagam .
Its so known as the artistes stamp thier booted feet on the stage while they perform a retinue which is a mix of song dialogue and dance all by actors themselves .
The costumes of actors resemble 16 century European costumes with prominent caps or head gear glitterring coats pants and heavy boots .
The dialogues and songs are in malayalam
The actors in small groupsbreak into choreographed steps on off with the very trademark stamping .
In fact its even said that a very good group would break the wooden stage by the end of thier act due to the forcible stamping 😁
Todays story was on Julius caesar and Fort Cochin Chowuttu nadagham kalari did the perfomance .
They were very professional having done more than 150 shows so far .
With revival of such folk arts it was very nice of IMA Kochi to arrange this for an audience to most of whom it would have been new .
The actors all did well but applause came to a small boy who dressed as an adult mimed the movements of his elder coleagues to perfection .
In the final scene Julius caesar is stabbed and he dies with an you too Brutus .
I really enjoyed the evening .
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