Humility as common thread
The frozen flame leaps to life, the tiraiseelai ripples, the dancer comes to life. Adoor Gopalakrishnan's tribute to 80-year old Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair traces the history of Kathakali through the famous plays, whether `Subhadraharanam' or `Nalacharitram.' The characters range from Krishna to Keechaka. Rasa is assured with an austere camera, aiming for excellence without excess. Sun, star, lamp and lantern paint the dappled shades of real life, recreate flashbacks, or glow into myth and romance.
Rare colours
The music paints full-blooded ragas — Nattai to Nilambari — in forgotten colours. No dancing by woods and river, or shifts from close up to long shot.
Adoor retains the stage as the performance space, contextualised by foregrounding a burning lamp. The frame is static, allowing the dance to turn dynamic.
Riveting
Guru Ramankutty Nair actualises a different kind of adbhuta — restrained in recollections, magnificent on the stage. He holds our attention on both platforms. His eyes sparkle when he remembers how his grandmother had noted the three swirls on his head and predicted a crown; or how a stammer had saved him from the wrath of the school inspector. He is amused by his opting for a pair of trousers, instead of the usual mundu and tundu, for the poet Vallathol's birthday. Adoor adds his own chuckles. When Nair talks about all night lessons cutting into sleep, the camera cuts to a night class of exercises forcing the eye open. Nair's love for his mother, devotion and dread towards his formidable guru, reverence for Vallathol, trust in elders, faith in tradition, relish of every part he plays... Humility runs through the yarn. It is evident in the art too as when Hanuman is taken captive before Sita, by sons Lava and Kusa.
``Sukhamo devi?" Nair is on the ground, prostrating with bhakti, unable to rise due to grief. His angika abhinaya images layers past and present, oppressions by Ravana and Rama.
A counterpart would be Nair doing his elaborate hours-long make up. The phenomenal concentration of the man is as stunning as his transformation from a mortal to an immortal.
Every Kathakali episode, necessarily short, evokes a feeling of completeness. The choice and the editing highlight bhava. This is a film made with a passion abiding and unsentimental.
G. R.
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Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
