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Aural exuberance: Kalamandalam Unnikrishnan.

Nearly 25 years ago, filmmaker Prakash Jha made a documentary on Kathakali. While shooting a segment on functional music, he requested legendary chenda artiste Kalamandalam Krishnankutty Poduwal to explain the role of the chenda in Kathakali. The aphoristic reply of Poduwal was: “Kathakali sans the chenda is like a sea without waves.”

In the post-Poduwal period, many percussionists emerged to entertain rasikas with their technical virtuosity on the chenda. But there was one instrumentalist who proved through his performance that one needs to have multifaceted faculties to accompany Kathakali actors. Kalamandalam Unnikrishnan is, perhaps, the only player of his generation who could follow in the footsteps of Poduwal.

Kulathoor village in Malappuram district, where Unnikrishnan hails from, has a temple-music tradition. His father was a locally renowned percussionist. Little surprise then that Unnikrishnan was drawn towards drumming even at a tender age. Incidentally, his brother Kottakal Revi is an ace maddalam artiste.

Pallassana Chandramannadiyar and Kalamandalam Achunni Poduwal were in charge of the faculty of chenda at Kalamandalam during the 1970’s. Unnikrishnan was fortunate to be under the wings of these two titans for years. He could assimilate the technical brilliance of Mannadiyar and the melliflous strokes of Achunni Poduwal.

The initial years of training in Kathakali chenda is restricted to the learning of the ‘patakkai,’ followed by short segments of pieces in Thayambaka such as pathikaalam and kooru along with mnemonics. These exercises help the students fine tune his ‘nerkol’ (vertical fall of the stick at the centre of the chenda’s surface) and ‘urulukai’ (the sounds produced on the chenda by the sticks by twisting the arms inward and outward) The gifts of an accompanist bear fruit only when he learns the semantics and the inner rhythms of the performing art concerned.

As for Kathakali, the ‘cholliyattakkalari’ is the acid test for budding chenda and maddalam artistes. Here again, Unnikrishnan was lucky as he got plenty of opportunities to practise in the kalari of Kalamandalam Gopi. Through an incessant process of trial and error, Unnikrishnan learnt the nuances of acting and dancing in sync with varying rhythms and tempos.

Gopi was all appreciation for the attentiveness and patience of Unnikrishnan. He introduced the artiste to many patrons of Kathakali in Kerala and outside. “But for the timely encouragement and support, I would not have made a mark on the Kathakali stage,” says a beaming Unnikrishnan. Unnikrishnan soon became the favourite accompanist of Ramanakutty Nair, Kumaran Nair and Gopi.

Tracing on the chenda the spectrum of expressions of the heroic and villainous characters in Kathakali is no mean challenge. But Unnikrishnan has had no difficulty in navigating the emotional intricacies of characters such as Nala, Arjuna, Bhima, Ravana and Hanuman.

When Gopi as Nala in ‘Nalacharitam Part II’ emotes the padam ‘Nava yauvanam vannu naal thorum valarunni,’ the burgeoning of Damayanthi’s youthfulness becomes an aural exuberance on Unnikrishnan’s chenda.

Unnikrishnan’s fine sense of music sees him playing strains of melody especially in the sringara and soka scenes.

Unnkrishnan is conversant with other forms of indigenous music such as melam and thayambaka. He also plays the edakka for Mohiniyattom recitals. His recitals in all the different genres of temple music show singular devotion and commitment.

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