Kerala's youth embrace MMA and Muay Thai alongside ancient Kalaripayattu tradition

Nineteen-year-old Muhammed Aiman S. from Thiruvananthapuram is preparing for a rigorous three-month training camp ahead of the University Games in December, where he will compete in Sanda, a Chinese full-contact sport. The psychology undergraduate, who fights out of the Johny Brothers Fight Club, plans two daily training sessions focusing on the speed-based discipline's punches, kicks and take-downs.

New combat disciplines find eager takers

Aiman and others like him represent a new breed of combat sports enthusiasts in the birthplace of Kalaripayattu. Kerala's martial arts landscape has expanded far beyond the traditional "big Ks", Karate, Kalaripayattu and Kung Fu, and later Taekwondo, to include Sanda, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ).

Ann Mary Philip from Edapally, Kochi, discovered kickboxing in 2018 while searching for a class for her son Chris. Under coach Kiran V.S. of SpaRing combat sports gym, she evolved into Muay Thai, Boxing and the Russian sport of Sambo, and at 42 has now started training in BJJ. She made her boxing debut in 2024 at age 40, the amateur age limit, making it simultaneously her retirement match. Ann travelled to Thailand in 2024 for a camp, registered for a fight night and won a Muay Thai bout at Bangla stadium in the minus-50 category.

Social media fuels the shift

MMA and Muay Thai clubs have proliferated across cities like Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode and smaller towns, driven by social media and YouTube. "MMA is by far the most popular because of the Ultimate Fighting Championship," says Joys Varghese, founder of Spartans Martial Arts and Fitness and a recognised referee in MMA and Muay Thai events.

Modern combat sport gyms feature floor mats, protective gear, weight racks, boxing rings and heavy bags, a far cry from 1980s and 1990s Karate classes held twice or thrice weekly in school auditoriums or on rooftops. "Youngsters today are not interested in spending time on the forms (set routines) in Karate and Kung-Fu. They want faster, workable results," Joys observes.

Binu Joseph, president of the Kerala State Muay Thai Association formed in 2014, attributes the sport's popularity directly to social media. "Before social media, people here did not have much awareness about martial arts beyond Karate, Kalari or Kung Fu. That is not the case nowadays. They know about other sports that are effective and engaging," he says.

Kalaripayattu sees renewed interest

Amid this influx of foreign combat arts, Kalaripayattu itself is experiencing a revival in its homeland. "There is a revival. During a visit to Bengaluru, I was astonished to see the number of people taking up Kalaripayattu," says S.R.D. Prasad, an octogenarian Gurukkal who runs Sree Bharath Kalari at Valapattanam, Kannur.

Prasad attributes the renewed interest to factors including the Union government selecting Kalaripayattu veterans such as Meenakshi Amma, Sankara Narayana Menon Chundayil and himself for Padma Awards. G. Sathyanarayanan, grandson of C.V. Narayanan Nair and Gurukkal at CVN Kalari in Thiruvananthapuram, confirms that "a lot of the interest in Kalari is fuelled by the internet".

The traditional art has also found expression in unexpected places. Eyal Meyer, who runs Mauna Kalari in Santiago, Chile, incorporated Kalaripayattu into the 2023 Chilean martial arts film The Fist of the Condor, where he performed the Ashwa Vadivu horse stance. Meyer, who first encountered the art in 2006 and trained with Kozhikode-based Hindustan Kalari Sangam starting in 2011, challenges the notion that it is outdated: "It is such a wise and profound technology for the body and mind that I feel it is more current than one thinks".

Source: The Hindu