Toast to the coast

Tulu cinema’s golden jubilee could also be a time of its renaissance, but it still has to contend with a shortage of theatres, high tariff and competition from other languages

- PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

In the national award-winning Tulu film Paddayi (2018) by Abhaya Simha, Madhava and Sugandhi, a newly-wed couple in coastal Karnataka, bring physical and psychological harm upon themselves, perhaps misreading a prophecy of Babbarya Daiva—the guardian deity of the Mogaveera (fishermen) community. The film is a retelling of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Paddayi was screened along with three other award-winning Tulu films— Madipu (2017), Bangar Patler (1993) and Gaggara (2010)— at the 13th Bengaluru International Film Festival held in early March in a tribute to the Tulu film industry which turned 50 in February 2021.

The five-decade-long journey of Tulu cinema (also known as Coastalwood) is a story of creative excellence as much as it is of resilience. Its first film, Enna Thangadi by S.R. Rajan, released in 1971; its first national award came in 1993, Bangar Patler. Since then, Tulu cinema has got six national awards and around 15 state awards. After S.R. Rajan, many stalwarts like K.N. Tailor, T.A. Srinivas, Richard Castelino, Ram Shetty and Sanjeeva Dandekeri forayed into Tulu filmmaking.

Karavali or coastal Karnataka is the land where the daiva (divine spirit) is revered as much as the deva (God). Tulu is spoken in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in Karnataka and parts of Kasaragod in Kerala. The 2011 census estimates that 20 lakh people speak Tulu; linguists studying dying languages identify it as a “vulnerable” one.