Kottayam nazeer mimicry plant

Kottayam Nazeeris one of the better known mimicry artistes from Kerala. The state has a huge percentage of people who work and live outside Kerala. Nazeer has travelled across India as well as the world, the Middle East in particular, to perform on stage.

These performances involve skits with a satirical take on political leaders and parties. The artistes take up roles of the leading political leaders, adopt their mannerisms and voice and through sheer sarcasm get the audiences rolling on the floor.

According to Nazeer, Malayalis working in other parts of the country and the world often come up to him and make this comment: "If you guys had made a show like this around the political leaders here, you would be finished."

Healthy Mirth

In recent years, political satire has become a part of the programming of national channels. But mimicry artistes of Kerala have been taking a dig at all the top leaders since the ’90s. This has meant that for over two decades, Kerala has been following the dictum of "no leg too long to pull".

The first set of leaders to be mimicked on stage were former chief ministers of Kerala, K Karunakaran and EK Nayanar, both of whom are no more. Former chief ministers AK Antonyand VS Achuthanandanas well as current chief minister Oommen Chandy are all copied and pasted regularly in television shows episode after episode. Nazeer says he once mimicked Nayanar in front of him. "He told me he enjoyed the show," says Nazeer.

At a time when India has been debating the limits to freedom of expression and prominent artistes and writers have been returning their awards on account of alleged intolerance, Kerala and the space it has offered mimicry artistes for all these years could be taken up as a case study of how art can help level a society and create a truly vibrant democracy. The early lead taken by Kerala in allowing artistes to comment on the political leadership freely has also meant that,

During the first wave of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, Mollywood popular mimicry artiste turned actor Kottayam Nazeer brushed up his skills as an artist, and painted some stunning portraits and pictures. The actor turned a star on social media after he completed over 21 paintings in the lockdown. As the paintings were widely appreciated by the netizens, the actor sold the lovely paintings and donated the amount he received to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

In this second lockdown, the actor has tried his hand in sketching images of actors. Recently, the actor sketched a poster of Jayasurya’s upcoming film ‘Eesho’. The painting was so brilliant that it looks exactly the same as its digital poster.

Awestruck by the sketch, actor Jayasurya shared the painting on his social media handle and also thanked Kottayam Nazeer for the piece. “Nazeerka is one of those people who never fails to amaze me, be it his amazing mimicry skills or art, he excels in any of the fields he chooses. I am excited to be amazed by the director in him which I am sure will not be too far away. Love and respect, always. NB: Please check his page. You can see more amazing soulful drawings over there @kottayamnazeer,” Jayasurya wrote.

It was recently, actor Manoj K Jayan shared the sketch of his most celebrated character Dikambaran from the movie ‘Anandhabhadram’. The painting which was done by Kottayam Nazeer was widely celebrated on social media. Take a look -

KOCHI: Perhaps, the festive times have bought much cheer to the retailers and owners of business, though the commoner seems to have lost his sense of humour. There is an increase in stress-related cases, note some doctors in the city.
"I see a lot of stress-related cases pouring in, and festive times actually sees more people coming in," noted Shubha Thayyil, a neuro-psychiatrist.She pointed out that the reason could be that the people are taking the stress of shopping. It could be because they get time to visit the doctor during these holidays.
"These holidays are stressful for there is a lot of travelling to be done, shopping and the money is just flowing out, that would give any one headache!" claimed K B Pillai, a business man, Palarivattom. "Onam used to be a time when there was maximum laughter at a house, somewhere something seems to have gone wrong," noted his wife, Hema.
At the Ernakulam fair ground, a mimicry group was seen trying its level best to engage the crowd. One of the artist commented, "People are too lost in their money calculation to give an ear for humour, let alone laugh."
"People just don't laugh anymore!" exclaimed Kottayam Nazeer, a mimicry artist. "You can understand a disconnect when you are performing abroad and talking to a second generation crowd, you can forgive that they didn't understand the language or something but what's happening to the Malayalee? He seems to have lost their sense of humour!"
"Nowadays people seem to forget to smile or laugh," said Dr Satish Bhat, from Dhathri Diabetic Poly Clinic in the city. A consultant for Diabetics believes that there is much need for Malayalees to just laugh things out to be healthy."The benefits of laughing can range from reducing heart-attack risk to weight loss! I would advise people to just laugh the stress of these festive times rather than give us