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A magic tale from the Mahabharata

It is believed by some that there is a magic solution for every problem. But then, there are two types of magic, satanic (black) and divine. The later always prevails upon the former.

Duryodhana’s problem was the Pandavas and he tries to eliminate them through black magic. He nearly succeeds. However, Krishna, with his divine intervention, restores them.

This is the story of ‘Nizhalkkuthu’ – a Kathakali based on the Mahabharata staged for the Palakkad Kathakali Trust at Chemabi Memorial Government Music College here last Saturday.

Duryodhana summons Bharatha Malayan, a tantric tribesman, to his palace and tests his powers through trusted friend Thrigarthan. Having satisfied, he asks Malayan to destroy the Pandavas. The tantric refuses initially, but yields when threatened with sword. He performs black magic and ‘kills’ the Pandavas.

A distraught Malayan returns home and narrates the story to Malayathi, his wife. In a fit of anger and grief, Malayathi kills their son and runs to grieving Kunti and Krishna, lamenting the loss of the Pandavas and her own son. Krishna chides her and restores life to all the ‘dead.’

The play had several attractions like novel make-up of the tantric and strange or funny situations making it interesting to watch.

Trustee of Palakkad Kathakali Trust P.K. Narayanan said that Ramachandran Unnithan as Malayan and Fact Mohanan as Duryodhana put up excellent performance. They were ably supported by Oyur Ramachandran as Malayathi, Kalamandalam Udayakumar as Thrigarthan, Rajiv as Malayan-transformed-tantric, Arun as messenger, Vishnuraj as Kunti and Suraj as Krishna.

Kalamandalam Sudhish and Kalanilayam Rajeevan provided the padams. Kalanilayam Kunjunny was on the chenda and Kalamandalam Srikumar on the maddalam.

G. Prabhakaran

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