Mathrubhumi is a Malayalam newspaper that is published from Kerala, India. It was founded by K. P. Kesava Menon, an active volunteer in the Indian freedom struggle against the British. The word "Mathrubhumi" translates to 'mother land'. It is the second most widely read newspaper daily in Kerala. It publishes a variety of magazines and supplements including the weekly literary magazine, Mathrubhumi Azhchappathippu.
B. Sandhya is a retired officer of the Indian Police Service and a former Director General of the Kerala Fire and Rescue Services, Home Guard, and Civil Defence. She is also known for her literary contributions which have won her a number of awards including the Edasseri Award in 2007. She retired from the service with the rank of Director General of Police on May 31, 2023.
V. M. Girija is an Indian poet and essayist, writing in Malayalam language. She has published a number of books, which include Prem - Ek Album, the Hindi translation of her poetry anthology in Malayalam, Pranayam Oralbum. Kerala Sahithya Akademi awarded her their 2018 annual award for poetry and she is a recipient of 'Changmpuzha Award for literature' and the 'Basheer Amma Malayalam Puraskaram'.
Janmabhumi is an Indian Malayalam-language daily newspaper, owned by Mathruka Pracharanalayam Ltd. and headquartered in Kochi, Kerala. It was launched as an evening paper from Kozhikode on 28 April 1977. From 14 November 1977 onwards it was upgraded to a daily newspaper publishing from Ernakulam. Currently Janmabhumi has nine editions. The newspaper is politically aligned with the BJP.
Riyas Komu is an Indian multimedia artist and curator based in Mumbai. He has invested his time in art education and developing art infrastructure in India. Komu's works are inspired by social conflicts and political movements and topics like migration and displacement. His hyper-realistic oil portraits of people resemble socialist-realist propaganda art, with one of his portraits titled Why Everybody should Look Like Mao.
Madhusudhanan is an Indian film maker and artist, also known as K. M. Madhusudhanan. His debut feature film, Bioscope has received many awards. He is working with different media in art, including sculpture, printmaking installation art and film.
Raveendran (Ravindher), popularly known as Disco Raveendran is an Indian actor, primarily concentrating in Malayalam and Tamil films and he was a very busy actor of both these languages in the 1980s. A multi-faceted personality, Raveendran is also a screenwriter, interior designer, anchor, a film scholar, an acting coach, social activist and director of film festivals like Kochi Metro (Malayalam) Short Film Fest. He is an alumnus of the Adayar film school, Chennai.
Velu Viswanathan, popularly known as Paris Viswanathan is an Indian painter, sculptor and filmmaker. He is considered by many as one of the prominent modern painters in India. He is a recipient of the Best Documentary Film Award of the Festival dei Popoli, Florence and the K. C. S. Paniker Award of the Kerala Lalithakala
Rajeeb Samdani is a Bangladeshi industrialist and art collector. As of 2021, he is the managing director of Golden Harvest Group, a Bangladeshi conglomerate, and the founder and trustee of Samdani Art Foundation which produces the Dhaka Art Summit.
The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an international exhibition of contemporary art held in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is the largest art exhibition in the country and the biggest contemporary art festival in Asia. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an initiative of the Kochi Biennale Foundation with support from the Government of Kerala. The concept of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale was ideated and executed by Venu Vasudevan, IAS, who was the Government of Kerala's cultural secretary. The exhibition is set across Kochi, with shows being held in existing galleries, halls, and site-specific installations in public spaces, heritage buildings and vacant structures.
Anita Dube is an Indian contemporary artist whose work has been widely exhibited in India.
Kochi Metro (Malayalam) Short Film Fest is an annual film festival held in Kochi, Kerala, devoted to short films made in Malayalam language. The short film pool consists of animation films, student films, experimental films as well as Documentary films. Established in the year 2014 by festival director Raveendran, a popular actor in Malayalam and Tamil language films at Gold Souk Grande Kochi. Malayalam actor Mohanlal is the festival chairman.
Shalini Passi is a Delhi-based art and design collector, art, design, and fashion patron, philanthropist, art and design advisor, and artist. She is a member of the Khoj Advisory Board since 2012 and continues to serve as patron of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
Pauly Valsan is an Indian actress who has been acclaimed for acting in Malayalam films and plays. She debuted in Malayalam film industry with the supporting roles in the 2008 movie Annan Thambi In 2017, she won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Character Actress for her performance in Ee.Ma.Yau directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery and Ottamuri Velicham directed by Rahul Riji Nair.In 2022, she won Kerala State Film Award for Best Dubbing Artist.
Shiny Benjamin, is a National Award-winning Indian director of documentaries and docufictions, from Trivandrum, Kerala.
Bilathikuzhal is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Vinu Kolichal.
Shubigi Rao is an Indian-born Singaporean contemporary artist and writer known for her long-term, multidisciplinary projects and installation works that often use books, etchings, drawings, video, and archives. Her interests include archaeology, libraries, neuroscience, histories and lies, literature and violence, and natural history. Rao has exhibited internationally, presenting work at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, 10th AsiaPacific Triennial in 2021, 10th Taipei Biennial in 2016, the 3rd Pune Biennale in 2017, the 2nd Singapore Biennale in 2008, as well as the 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2018.
K R Sunil is a visual artist hailing from Kodungallur, Kerala. He is an alumnus of the College of Fine Arts, Thrissur, where he developed his passion for photography. Sunil's work primarily focuses on human life; often ethnographic portrayals set against the backdrop of social and environmental issues. The recurring themes in his art documentation include the sea, maritime history, and climate change. The powerful, investigative representation of common people's struggles in a complex society through his work intents to inspire social change and bring attention to important issues. Sunil has received multiple awards for his series on various socio-relevant topics. For instance, his series titled 'Chronicle of a Disappearance,' which explored the dwindling ponds of Kerala, won him the India Habitat Photosphere Award in 2016. His 'Vanishing Life Worlds' series, which depicted the lives of the old port city of Ponnani, was exhibited at the Kochi Muziris Biennale in 2016. Additionally, his 'Manchukkar - The Seafarers of Malabar' series, which documented the last surviving group of dhow workers along the Malabar coast, was exhibited at the Uru Art Harbour in Kochi in 2018 and at the Clarinda Carnegie Art Museum, USA in 2021, while also getting printed by a Swiss publication the same year. Sunil's series 'Home' explores the impact of climate change on coastal homes and livelihoods. It was part of exhibitions by the Kochi Muziris Biennale Foundation at Kochi and Alappey in 2021. Furthermore, his photography series titled 'Chavittu Nadakam: Story Tellers of the Seashore' sheds light on the lives of Dalit Christian performers of the age-old art form Chavittu Nadakam and how climate change affects them. He has participated in the curatorial exhibition of Mattancherry by artist and curator Riyas Komu. Mattancherry photography series gazes the subaltern livelihood with a concrete ethnographic document to the contemporary cultural historiography Kerala. Mattancherry Island is a major hub of many waves of sea root connections from various parts of the world.
Pappanji is an effigy of an old man, prepared as part of the New Year celebrations in Fort Kochi, Kerala. It is prepared in the form of an old man as a symbol of the passing year. With Pappanji being burned at midnight on the last day of December, the concept is that the year is over. Although thought to have originated from the remnants of the Christmas and New Year celebrations of the Portuguese, it is now considered a secular festival.
