Bird pictures, including one taken by actor Mammootty, to be on show

Explore 'Singing and Soaring Malayalam' exhibition showcasing 61 bird photographs at Durbar Hall Art Gallery, June 27-30.

‘Singing and Soaring Malayalam’, a four-day exhibition, which will showcase 61 photographs of birds commonly seen in Kerala, will get under way at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery on June 27.

In all, 23 photographers will be participating in the show including actor Mammootty, an avid camera buff, and noted bird photographer Jainy Kuriakose. Writer Paul Zacharia will open the show at 5.30 p.m.

The curators of the exhibition are Suresh Elamon, a birdwatcher, photographer, and author of the biography of Induchoodan; Sreedevi Madhavan, a birdwatcher, photographer, and journalist; and M. Ramachandran, an art and cultural critic and photographer.

Along with photographs of birds will be excerpts from Birds of Kerala, the iconic book by Induchoodan. Chirping and singing of some of the birds will be part of the exhibition.

The show is organised by Induchoodan Foundation, which was formed to perpetuate love for nature, birds, and the ideas for which Induchoodan stood.

Years ago, when there were no sophisticated cameras and other equipment available, Induchoodan, an English professor, moved around Kerala mountains and valleys, seashores and jungles, villages and forests, and its plains, searching for birds and their habitats, understanding the way they breed, preen, move, cry, and sing. It was his habit to sketch the birds he saw in the field itself. 

He perfected those sketches at home and used many of them in his book that was published by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi as its first ever publication in 1958.