The letters of the Malayalam alphabet with its squiggles, curves and circular shapes fire the imagination of artists to come up with jaw-dropping expressions of creativity. A pioneer in this has been Narayana Bhattathiri, better known as Artist Bhattathiri, who continues to experiment with Malayalam letters in several innovative ways. Whether with visually interpretive movie posters or intricate calligraphic brush-strokes or quirky wordplays in eye-catching designs, there are many who follow in his footsteps and add another dimension to the visual aesthetics of Malayalam letters. MetroPlus speaks to some who are in the business of beautifying and layering the Malayalam alphabet in myriad media.

Danny Kurian | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Flavour of Kerala

City-based lifestyle products’ store Firebox draws inspiration from the idea that literally one can find a ‘firebox’ in every household. “By which we mean the theepetti in Malayalam,” quips Danny Kurian, founder of Firebox.

With the tagline ‘Made for Malayalis, Made by Malayalis’, Firebox’s products – that include T-shirts, mugs, notebooks, caps and coasters – add a “flavour of Kerala” in its designs, perhaps the pick of the bunch being quirky experiments with Malayalam letters. With a predominantly online-based service, Danny says, Firebox’s “minimalistic design sensibility” caters to the nostalgia of Malayalis living outside the State and encapsulates “instantly recognisable imageries” of Kerala.

Firebox has a line of giftable merchandise that play with Malayalam letters and phrases in their design. “One of our top-selling products is a T-shirt designed around the concept of the word-scrambling technique, typoglycemia, which deliberately plays with typo while keeping the text easily readable. It was designed by calligrapher Prajwal Xavier. Other design experiments include depicting the word ‘Malayalam’ by replacing the vowels with the corresponding Malayalam letter. The idea here is to represent multi-culturalism,” says Danny. One of the designs plays around the geometrical concept of ‘golden spiral’ using the first Malayalam vowel, while another calligraphic design, fully done in Malayalam lettering, takes up the Sanskrit phrase Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu.

Calligraphy art by Prajwal Xavier | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

A mug design in black-and-white theme “visually interprets” the phrase vechadi vechadi kayattam (denoting rise or progress). Then there’s a set of four coasters that features four Malayalam vowels separately, which resemble wood engravings in the design of ropes.

Danny, who previously ran an animation studio, says “a network” of Malayali artists and graphic designers helps him with the designs. “We usually work around a design idea. With such round and rolling letters, Malayalam script by itself has a natural beauty. So our job is simply to interpret it,” he says.

Brush with design

Twenty-seven-year-old Prajwal Xavier recalls having always been fascinated with letters. Be it the boards on public buses or hoardings on the street, he would observe the curves and swirls and would try and recreate them.

“I enjoy the art of writing, although in my school days, I had no idea that it was called calligraphy.”

Prajwal began pursuing calligraphy in earnest after his graduation from Toc H Institute of Science & Technology. “I attended various sessions on calligraphy and did extensive research on the subject. I even visited cemeteries to study Latin fonts,” says the Kochi-based artist who concentrates on Malayalam calligraphy and has exhibited his works and held workshops at venues across the State. One of his works, based on the theme unity, will be travelling to Singapore for Asia’s Best Calligraphers & Artists Showcase Singapore 2019.

Prajwal Xavier | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

“The invite came during Onam, so there’s a feel of Onam in the work,” says Prajwal, who tries to spread his love for calligraphy through Sign Walk, a walk through predestined spots in Kochi such as Fort Kochi, Mattancherry and the market in Ernakulam.

“We point out old boards with interesting fonts, some of them non-existent these days, and go into the technical details like the font used, why was it chosen, the brush used... to the participants. Some of these fonts are non-existent and I hope to create an awareness so that people might cherish them. I plan to expand the walks to include cemeteries, for instance,” says Prajwal, who enjoys working with Malayalam fonts as he feels Malayalam lacks the number of typefaces English does.

Prajwal who posts his works on Instagram claims his posts on travel and lettering are popular. “The posts feature photographs of the places I have visited along with the name of the place written by me using calligraphy. I try to capture the feel of the place while crafting the script.”

The artiste who is currently researching the types of fonts used on trucks and lorries, hopes to create more lettering styles in Malayalam for graphic typefaces.

The poster of Jallikattu created by Old Monks | Photo Credit: special arrangement

Craft of lettering

There is a taut energy in the letters on the poster that spell Jallikattu in Malayalam. The dynamics of the poster lie in the letters that seem to be running amok with a rope slashing and curving through them while a buffalo charges into a group of people from a corner of the poster! With their edgy posters that combine typography and art with design, creativity and imagination, Old Monks has an enviable repertoire when it comes to posters for Malayalam films.

Within almost a decade, they have created some of the most talked-about posters for films such as Jallikattu, Charlie, Amen, Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, Anwar, Double Barrel, Carbon, Ustad Hotel, CIA and so on.

Sreejith N, a graduate of the College of Fine Arts in Thiruvananthapuram and one of the founders of Old Monks, says they have been inspired by posters of Malayalam films of the ‘70s and ‘80s. “Unlike posters of Hollywood films, which makes no attempt to play on the title to convey the story of the film, Malayalam film posters have tried to play on the typography, design and letters of the alphabet to convey the theme or story of the film in the design of the title of the film. Bharathan, an artist himself, had made such creative posters for his films such as Churam and Thazhvaaram. He used to paint the titles himself and had creatively used the letters of the Malayalam alphabet to suit the title. I guess we have been influenced by those posters,” he says.

The Old Monks team | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

The arrival of computers and technology made things simpler for the designers. “But after some time, that made the posters somewhat less interesting by bringing in a kind of uniformity. We have gone back to the basics and try to combine technology with hand skills. There is a lot of human involvement,” says Sreejith.

Say it with a letter In August 2017, a group of artists in Kerala celebrated the letters of the Malayalam alphabet with ‘30 days of Malayalam letters’, a hashtag and Instagram handle. Organised by Kerala Designers Collaborative (KDCO), the initiative invited artists to create with any letter of the alphabet and post it on their Insta handle.

“It was an attempt to make people aware of the possibilities of the Malayalam letters and celebrate it,” says graphic artist Anusha Jacob, one of the organisers. In 2017, the artists were free to choose any letter of their choice on each day of the month. In 2018, we had assigned a letter for each day of the month. However, the flood that ravaged Kerala interrupted it and we have put the idea on hold for now, adds Anusha.

In the case of Jallikattu, the film’s director Lijo Jose Pelliserry told them that the film was about Mannu, mrigam, manushyan (soil, animal and man). “That was when we thought of making the letters and the image in clay and then photographing it as a relief work on paper. In the case of Rajeev Ravi’s Kammattipaadam, the tale was about revenge and so we took a piece of paper, did a wash on it in which red paint was poured over the paper and then kept clicking photos till we got one that had the red seeping and bleeding into the surroundings. We used that background to place the title of the film. Kammattipaadam (in Malayalam) looks as if the letters are bleeding and it captured the basic thread of the film,” explains Sreejith.

When Anwar Rasheed narrated the one-line story of a no-frills café by the beach, they came with a poster that had the title of the film, Ustad Hotel, painted on a tyre. “There was no great technology in it. We bought a tyre from a puncture shop, hand-painted it and painted in Ustad Hotel. “In the case of Charlie, the film’s director Martin Prakkat told us that it was the story of a man who was like the wind. He keeps moving and enjoys nature. So we made the letters swirl and curve, almost like being touched by a breeze and embellished it with flowers and birds. Many of the posters that we have done have such stories around them,” says Sreejith.