Touchstone of artistic merit
K. PRADEEP
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The staging of `Kalakeya Vadham' gave an opportunity to young artistes to perform the acclaimed works of Kottayath Thampuran.
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CLASSIC: Kalamandalam Pradeep, left, and Kalamandalam Shanmughan in `Kalakeya Vadham.'
For the die-hard Kathakali enthusiast there is nothing like the plays of Kottayath Thampuran. It is also considered the ultimate test for artistes. Highly technical in the use of steps and mudras, every movement is also strictly traditional. Right from early days, only senior artistes played the main roles in these plays. So, most of the younger crop of artistes have hardly had opportunities to test their skills in these touchstone plays.
Joint venture
A joint venture of the Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi and Vedika, Thrissur, is aimed at popularising the Kottayath Thampuran works and to provide a stage for young artistes to perform these plays.
`Kalakeya Vadham,' staged under the aegis of the Thripunithura Kathakali Kendram recently, was part of this project. The play focuses on the character of Arjuna. Shortly after obtaining the divine arrow from Siva, Indra sends his charioteer Matali to invite his son Arjuna to visit him in Devaloka. After meeting Indra and Indrani, Arjuna goes around Devalokam. Though the original play goes beyond this, the performance was restricted to these scenes only.
Even the opening scenes reveal the intricate, unbending style, the various facets of acting and some of the classic `padams.' In the first instance, there is a scene when Arjuna stands embarrassed by the lavish praise heaped on him by Matali. The padam or verse beginning `Salajjogham... ' provides the actors space to prove their acting skills. The dominant bhava is `veeram.' And here both Kalamandalam Pradeep, who played Arjuna, and Kalamandalam Shanmughan, who played Matali, came out in flying colours.
The period of pure dance or `ashtakalasam,' popularly referred to as ananda nrithyam in the sequence when Arjuna meets Indrani, has been very cleverly included into the fabric of the text. After the rigorous and strictly regulated movements, this phase provides a space for the artistes to relax. In the Kottayath Thampuran plays there is very little scope for improvisation. And when an opportunity presents itself, in a small way at least, the actors bloom.
The long passage of solo acting in `Swargavarnana,' in which Arjuna describes the sights of Devaloka was used intelligently by Kalamandalam Pradeep to improvise. Nedumpilly Ram Mohan, Kottakkal Narayanan Namboodiri (song); Kottakal Vijayaraghavan (chenda) and Kalamandalam Raj Narayanan (maddalam) admirably backed the actors.
More than anything else, the performance proved that Pradeep, one of the winners of this year's Ustad Bismillah Khan Award for the most promising young artiste, and Shanmughan are certainly the stars of the future.
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