Students pay tribute to poet-lyricist P Bhaskaran in his birth centenary year

Students at P Bhaskaran Memorial School in Kerala honor the poet-lyricist with art installations and paintings.

The students of P Bhaskaran Memorial Higher Secondary School at Kodungallur in Thrissur district of Kerala are honouring the legend in an artistic way. Celebrating his birth centenary year, they have created art works and installations as a tribute to the poet-lyricist, who had his early education in the school.

Led by their art teacher Priya KG, the students were encouraged to choose two of the poet-lyricist’s famous works — Mazhamukil Penkodi and Adya Vidyalayam — and guided to paint a wall with the imagery inspired by these evocative verses.

They also picked a handful of lines from popular film songs penned by him and wrote them on the wall. The school is now a walk-in showcase of P Bhaskaran’s lyrical genius with lines from some of his popular songs ‘Arabikkadaloru’, ‘Lokam muzhuvan’, ‘Thamasamenthe varuvan’, ‘Unarunaroo’, and ‘Pularkkala sundara’.

It all began with Priya, who joined the school two months ago, wanting to creatively engage the children. “This is P Bhaskaran’s alma mater, and his birth centenary year presents a great opportunity to the students to learn more about the man, his works and pay a tribute to him in their own way,” says Priya.

The exercise proved to reintroduce P Bhaskaran’s genius to a generation that may not be very familiar with his works. “We read out the selected poems to the children and they listened with rapt attention, asked questions and seemed to enjoy translating the verses into images,” says Priya.

“Some of these songs and poems were written over 60 years ago, but the children could still connect with the words and relate to the emotion,” adds Priya.

Priya directed the school’s art club to divide the upper primary section into 10 groups. Each group had to pick one of Bhaskaran’s film songs and select a word from it. They then collected all the words and created a montage of the images, which were painted on the wall. The common images that popped up were shalabham (butterfly), poovu (flower) and kaayal (lagoon). “The idea was also to give the children a collaborative art experience. They enjoyed being part of the work,” adds Priya.