After many years of carrying around a fond wish in my heart,
I finally got to see a kathakali performance this evening. I had almost not been able to make it since I
thought I’d have no company. My husband is currently away and another friend
who was of a like mind was unfortunately in Kerala and therefore I decided
against going alone. It was S who said “Post it in Facebook – one of your friends
might actually want to go!” So I duly posted it not expecting a single soul to
be interested. But just as I posted it, my eternal pal T said she would love to
join me and I was thrilled. So we made plans for the Sunday evening performance
and en route I gave her sketchy ideas on Kathakali. S is of course an expert
but I had never watched a single Kathakali performance and so I approached the
programme with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension as to whether it
would make sense to a novice.
T and I met up with one more friend of mine and we all sat
together. Thankfully he could grasp most of the meanings of the ‘padams’ or song
verses and we got a decent enough interpretation. The opening scene of the
Daksha Yaga performance featured none other than Kalamandalam Gopi Asan, one of
the foremost exponents of the art. His graceful movements and facial
expressions belied his age and the elegant little piece that he performed was a
perfect beginning. He did not take the stage as Daksha for the rest of the
performance however. The entire enactment was mesmerising. Daksha (now played
by another artiste), Sati, Shiva, Indra, Veerabhadra and Kali made up the cast
along with two pint-sized bhoothaganas who looked more like kutty chathans
(they were terribly cute!).
The final scenes where Veerabhadra and BhadraKali ran to and
fro , yelling and brandishing sword and axe and screaming bloody murder right
in the midst of the audience was spellbinding. The sheer grace of the dancers
who with their limited movements and unlimited expressions managed to convey
the story in all its beauty on a cramped stage is simply inexpressible. Three
powerful dancers on a tiny stage displaying Daksha’s determination, Veerabhadra’s
ferocity and Kali’s bloodlust made for truly a spectacular watch. I sat up in
my chair during those scenes feeling the shiver of goosebumps as the dancers ran this way and that all in
time to the rhythm of the chenda and the madalam. The music and the scenes
transport you to a different world – a world of passion, fury, glory,
compassion, gods, villains and every wonderful thing to a higher degree than imaginable.
All three of us enjoyed the performance thoroughly. I definitely wish to go
again and learn more about this superb art form. Not knowing anything except
the story although enabling me to comprehend, still left me feeling that I
wished to know more of the background of the entire art form and to learn more
of the beautiful kathakali sangeetham or to be able to appreciate nuances such
as the main character always being on the left of the stage or the chenda never
being played while a female character of importance took centre stage.
A perfect Sunday night has drawn to a close and unlike my
usual Sunday evenings where I feel a nameless sadness take hold of me, today
the demons of low spirits seemed banished to a far off place.
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