GREETINGS: A poster welcomes Brazil's 'canary birds' and their samba beat to Asia

It is either misplaced passion or dislocated delirium, but as World Cup football hots up in the Far East, temperatures seem to rise in a district of Kerala, now most definitely the Indian epicentre of football fever.

In Malappuram district, a small slice of north Kerala with a little over 30 lakh people, the World Cup is a chance to take sides, get involved and go crazy. It begins with the benign decoration of streets with posters, banners and cutouts, but once the tournament is under way, the formation of team "camps" means things can take a serious turn quickly. If this is the heartland of Indian football, the World Cup is like its great four-yearly cardiac flutter.

When England beat Argentina in Sapporo, Japan, English fans managed to celebrate without destroying property. But their counterparts in Malappuram went berserk. Intoxicated by the win, Malappuram's pseudo-English "hooligans" chose to strike first at the Argentinian superstar who is the region's cult figure-striker Gabriel Batistuta, whose huge cutouts loom over the remotest and most serene village landscape. In Tirur town, "Batigol" was burnt in effigy by "fans" of the England team and within minutes, there was a civil disturbance of sorts at hand.

FOOTBALL FEST: The World Cup comes to Malappuram with a colourful parade; (right) the 'soccer-cut' has many takers

An autorickshaw driver in Vengara village, Shamsuddeen Kuniyil, 21, was hospitalised after he was beaten up in a street brawl. His crime: calling France's Zinedine Zidane a panni (swine). An unrepentant Kuniyil said the brawl was started by his assailants who had dared to call his Brazilian hero Ronaldo "an obscene name".

In another corner of the state, the staff at the notoriously inefficient Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) in Kalikav felt the punch of the fist of public fury. On China's debut at the World Cup, as power came and went like gusts of breeze, the people trying to follow the game on TV decided they could take no more. They ransacked the local KSEB office and beat up two somnolent employees.

It's not all about overflowing passions and out-of-control tempers. The World Cup comes to Malappuram in the form of a business opportunity too. The Malayalam film industry has been reeling under a crisis. All through last fortnight, cinema halls projected live matches on their large screens. People throng theatres and buy tickets priced between Rs 25 and Rs 100 as Ten Sports, the channel that has won rights to telecast the World Cup, is not available in most homes where Doordarshan dominates. A theatre-owner celebrated as the first round of matches came to a close, "It's after a long time my theatre has actually run house-full."

The CPI(M), which considers itself ideologically distant from all sporting activities, also jumped on the World Cup bandwagon. The CPI(M)'s youth organisation, the Democratic Youth Federation of India, held protest marches in all districts against the Centre's failure to telecast matches live. Nothing unusual about protesting against DD, but this time the participants wore the colours of the different competing nations.

A STITCH IN TIME: Football faithfuls queue up to buy the flags of their favourite teams

According to Kerala's seniormost sports writer V.M. Balachandran, Malappuram's almost unreal affinity for football has historical roots. Unlike other parts of Kerala, Malappuram in the Malabar region, was part of the old Madras state before Independence and was exposed to high-class football played by the English army officers of the various regiments based there. Today, even though football has waned in the rest of the old Malabar region, Balachandran says, "It is a passion in Malappuram thanks to the widespread popularity of seven-a-side football." The district has more than 100 clubs playing good standard tournaments in which even foreign players participate.

A visitor to the interiors of the district may well believe that the World Cup is actually being held there. Streets are lined with flags of competing nations and huge cutouts of football stars like Batistuta, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos loom over passers-by. Posters give judgements on current and former stars. One is particularly scathing about Maradona and criticises him for having defamed Argentina and football with his "unsporting game". The comment on Maradona's famous goal against England in 1986 is declared on a poster as having been scored "not with the God's but Satan's hand".

Young men walk the streets wearing the colours of their favourite nation, the more committed fans having shaved their heads like the big Brazilian stars, while others go in for the "soccer-cut". Abdul Samad of the Central Haircutting Saloon near Tirur's railway station is the busiest barber in the district. For Samad is the area's specialist in the trendy "World Cup cut" in which the faithful have styled and dyed their hair to resemble a football complete with its hexagonal patches. "This is a huge hit. I have to spend at least three hours on one cut but I don't charge anything extra since I'm doing it for football," says Samad. Next on his agenda is a cut that will actually feature a soccer star perched on the head of a Malappuram maniac.

Shops are filled with toffees and cakes shaped like a ball and the famous trophy. A local DTP operator at Tirur has made a killing by printing World Cup greeting cards with photographs of players on it. These days people rush to Pangat Silks not to buy cloth but flags as the store has produced the national flags of all the 32 competing nations. Before the World Cup finals began, clients queued up early to buy their colours. Shop owner T.P. Haneefa ordered a book of flags from a friend in Dubai long before the kick-off and learnt how to stitch the flags of countries like Senegal and Slovenia in time to be able to rake in a profit when the matches began.

Malappuram's favourite team is Argentina and Pangat Silks sold stacks of the famous blue and white flag; but fans were deeply disappointed with the team's early exit from the tournament, a victim of the Group of Death that also featured England, Sweden and Nigeria. But for those who despair at the early departure of France and Argentina, the flag-buyers of Malappuram provide a hint. Haneefa says, "Brazil is second. The surprise favourite is Portugal. I think it is Portugal and particularly its star Luis Figo's performance at the Euro Cup final against France which won so many fans here," says Haneefa. Time for stars from Rivaldo to Rui Costa to justify the faith of their fans, including those in faraway places like Malappuram, India.