New Delhi, Oct. 31 -- If people think football is just a ball kicked around the field, then a guitar is just wood with strings, and a book is paper with ink, says one of the protagonists of Panthadikkam, a five-episode docu-series that explores Kerala's intimate, passionate relationship with football.

The series, which dropped on Malayalam Zee 5 earlier this month, is not about the state's generational wealth of football players, but of the (predominantly male) Keralite's craze for it. Since the state's inception on 1 November 1956, says the heavy baritone of actor Mammootty's voiceover, the state has been a keen follower of the sport.

If Bengal has been a supporter of Brazil and Kerala of Argentina, as is widely believed, the latter's ...