When K Ramachandran came to Mumbai in 1990, there wasn’t much to speak of in terms of a Malayali cultural movement or festival. Ramachandran and a group of friends from Kerala got together and began to organise yearly cultural programmes in suburban Vasai where they lived. Inviting the lords of traditional Malayali performing art forms such as Kathakali, Kutiyattam, Mohiniattam and musicians every year, the festival grew under their working title, Keli.

Kathakali maestro Kumaran Nair, Kutiyattam great Ammanur Madhava Chakyar, Chemmangudi Sreenivas Iyer, Sivaram Poduval and Kalamandalam Appukutty Poduval are some of the doyens that have graced Keli festivals over the last 16 years.

And as they prepare for the 17th edition, the three-day festival that begins today at the Y B Chavan auditorium may seem a bit surprising that all the masters this year are non-Malayalis. “Over the years, we only showcased traditional artists from Kerala, and we realised that we should also bring other art forms to our stage. Art or culture doesn’t have boundaries and so we’ve decided to go further and include Hindustani classical music.”

An important feature of the festival is the felicitation of the senior artists that visit and perform every year. This year, sarangi virtuoso, Padmabhushan Pandit Ram Narayan, tabla maestro, Ustad Zakir Hussain and sarod exponent Brij Narayan will perform and be felicitated. Subhash Chandran, artistic director of the festival, feels this is an attempt to “spread the wings of the festival and embrace other art forms”.

Funded by corporates over the years, the going hasn’t always been easy for the organisers of Keli. When they managed to draw the attention of theatre person Sanjana Kapoor when they staged Nangyarkuttu — a 1,200-year-old dance form — at Prithvi Theatre in 1995, she reacted instantly. “She absolutely loved the performance and realised the difficulties that Keli was facing. Ever since, Prithvi has been a constant source of support,” says documentary filmmaker Ramachandran who has been associated with Prithvi’s festival for many years and has done his bit to preserve dying art forms through his films. Bose Krishnamachari, who produced Shiki, Ramachandran’s film on Kutiyattam will not forget the spectacle he saw two years ago at Horniman Circle when 150 temple drummers from Kerala perfomed to lively audiences. “A city is a large amalgam of many cultures. It’s the constituting cultures from various other places that bring the city alive and make it colourful,” he remarks.