Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

With the growth of the electronic media and the cassette industry, artistic tastes seem to
have undergone a major transformation. There appears to be a major upsurge of the
mappilappattu cassettes, and also Malayalam ghazal singing, apart from the standard film
songs. Parody songs and ‘modern’ folk songs are also much enjoyed. The spread of the
cassette industry has resulted in a new generation of singers, who do not necessarily
perform on the stage, but are heard and enjoyed nevertheless. There is a massive input of
such cassettes from the Gulf areas. Another ‘modern’ source of enjoyment is a local cable
channel named CITY TV which is operating from Tirurangadi. Local talent particularly
in singing and dance gets a chance to demonstrate their skills through this network. A few
stage shows, now popularized by the cine and TV stars have also been conducted in the
area recently, which have attracted large audiences. Such shows seem to be controlling
the taste of the younger generation, in particular.
An interesting outcome of the changes in taste is the growth of a large number of centers
for training children in dance, music and fine arts. A large number of such centers exist in
middle class localities such as the University area, where there is also the tendency to
bring experts from other parts like Calicut city to give training to children. With the
spread of school, and college youth festivals, and ‘fests’ of various colleges conducted
even by parallel colleges the number of training centers and teachers have increased
substantially. Nearly everyone with some training in fine arts appears to be engaged in
training someone else. Some of the arts clubs are also engaged in training students for
various programmes and conducting regular classes. This tendency has resulted in growth
of large scale establishments, like kalagramam in Parappanangadi. This form of training
has resulted in the mass production of artists, but how many of them take up art as a
profession, except teaching it, is another matter.
Interest in sports also seems to be undergoing transformation. Earlier generation talks
about kalapoottu that is bullock-racing, which used to be a craze in several parts of the