Mangaluru:

Guthumane (village headman’s house in Tulunadu of yesteryears), which will open at Dr Shivarama Karantha Pilikula Nisargadhama on Friday, will offer a time-travel experience for visitors and become a must-see spot in the tourism circuit, according to authorities. With do-it-yourself elements interwoven into static display of artefacts, Guthumane will offer a peek into the socio-religious-cultural history of Tulunadu.

While offering a sneak preview of the Guthumane for select invitees on the occasion of Bisu Parba on Thursday, authorities of Pilikula Nisargadhama and the district administration said that the house will have a research team that scans public feedback and make changes to items displayed, hold theme-based exhibitions, while retaining the intrinsic charm of all things inherent to the Guthumane.

B A Viveka Rai, chairman of the sub-committee on Artisan Village at Nisargadhama that includes the Guthumane, said changes will come on a regular basis. “We have already noted down a few problems in the present set up. This includes keeping the video kiosks close to each other. We will shift one kiosk to other part of the inner quadrangle,” he said. Voice quality on ‘Ajji Kathe’ display is not up to the mark and the story will be re-recorded to give visitors a better feel, he added.

Creative artist Shashidhara Adapa and his team with expertise in setting up museums, have scoured length and breadth of Tulunadu from Baindoor to Kasargod to get original items used in the past. One such item is the ‘Pattada Mancha’ (royal cot) that rests majestically on front verandah of the Guthumane.

Li kewise, Shashidhar sourced a cane basket used by yakshagana artists to transport items. It was sourced from Kollur after a long search for people who weave such baskets now. “It has taken the team headed by Rai at least eight months of work including two months of basic research, lots of interactions and agreements to get everything in place,” Shashidhar said .

For Sreenivas Sasthan of Karnataka Kala Darshini, Bengaluru, getting the yakshagana figurines from both Thenkathittu and Badagathittu styles measure up to human exactness was a task that brought out the best in him. “It was a worthy effort,” Sreenivas said, noting that pictures of a Yakshagana artists were taken in eight different angles and the human likeness was created using fibre glass.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Mangalore / Jaideep Shenoy / TNN / April 15th, 2016