Kerala Literature Festival off to a bright start

Kerala Literature Festival opens with Naseeruddin Shah and Parvathy Thiruvothu discussing art, literature, and life on stage.

The Kozhikode Beach came alive on Thursday night.

On stage was one of India’s finest actors of all time and a young actress who has not merely proved herself as an artiste of high quality but also shown commendable courage to take on the establishment. The session featuring Naseeruddin Shah and Parvathy Thiruvothu proved the biggest crowd-puller on the opening day of the eighth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF).

It was not just the audience that enjoyed two talented stars exchanging ideas on the stage. “It was great to see so many people attending a literature festival,” Shah told The Hindu shortly after the session. “But it isn’t surprising as this is Kerala.”

This was his third engagement of the day at the KLF. He also had a session that featured his wife and actress Ratna Pathak Shah as well as poet Arundhathi Subramaniam, for a reading of Vikram Seth’s poetry.

During his interaction with Paravathy, Shah said why he enjoyed acting in theatre more. “You get to act in plays written by dramatists written centuries ago,” he said. “And it is from theatre that I have learnt whatever I have learnt about life.”

The opening day of the KLF featured several other interesting discussions, including the one by renowned British archaeologist Robin Coningham, who talked about Harappa: 100 years later. There were also sessions featuring noted writers from Malayalam and other languages.

The four-day festival was inaugurated online by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who praised KLF’s growth as one of India’s largest literature festivals. “It has also become an inspiration for several other literature festivals in Kerala,” he said.