The Kathakali Club at Thrissur,
Kerala is a non-profitable organization with an aim to promote the traditional classical
dance drama of Kerala, Kathakali. The club used to organize monthly programs on
Kathakali at Thrissur sponsored by the well wishers of the dance drama. On 13
July 2014, the club conducted its 49th annual general body meeting
at agrasaala of Parammekavu temple at
Thrissur. Followed by the meeting a Kathakali performance sponsored by Dr M V
Jayan, a club member was held here.
Story, Actors and
Crew
Kathakali conducted on 13th
July, narrated the story Kiratham – from the epic Mahabharatham. Peesapilly
Rajeev and RLV Pramod played the roles of Kaattalan
and Kaattala sthree (female
character). The other actors involved were Kalamandalam Harinarayanan as Arjunan, Kalamandalam Praveen as Lord Sivan, Kalamandalam Athul as Godess Parvathy and Kalamandalam Athul
as Panni respectively. The Kathakali
music was sung by two upcoming buds Kum. Aruni Jayan and Kum. Midhila Jayan,
the disciples of Nedumbally Ram Mohan, the talented Kathakali musician. The percussions were handled by Kalamandalam
Ravisankar on Chenda and RLV Jithin on Madhalam. The make-up for the whole team
was done by Kalamandalam Ravikumar.
The Story - Kiratham
The story of Kiratham, from the
epic Mahabharatha and was rewritten by Erattakulangara Rama Variyar so as to suite
Kathakali theatre performance. The story
narrates the fight between Arjunan, one
of the Pandava brothers in Mahabharatha and Lord Shiva, one of the principal
Gods of the Universe. Arjunan, as per the advice of his brother going to do a thapass (an asceticism) for Lord Shiva,
inorder to attain special powers in using bow and arrows. The
Kathakali story narrates mainly in four scenes.
The play began with the padam ‘Paramesa pahi pahimam puranaasa daivamee..’. Arjunan started
his journey to mount Kailas and there he finds a suitable place for thapass. He takes a bath and purified
himself and started chanting prayers of Lord Shiva in his deep thapass. Lord Shiva and his wife Goddess
Parvathy appeared themselves as Kaattalan (forest tribe) and Kaattalasthree
(wife of hunter). Kaattalasthree , Godess Parvathy, recommends Lord Shiva who
is in the attire of Kaattalan to bless Arjunan and to give him the boon that he
desired. But Lord Shiva wanted to test Arjunan before satisfying his wish. For
this, they (both Kaattalan and Kaattalasthree) went to the place where Arjunan
was on his deep thapas. At the same
time, Duryodhanan, the eldest of the 101 brothers of Kaurava, send Mookasuran (an evil
character) in the form of a panni
(pig) to disturb the thapass of Arjunan
and to obstruct him from getting the blessings from Lord Shiva. The disturbed Arjunan send an arrow to the
bore. Simultaneously the Kaattalan also send an arrow to the same boar and
killed it. Naturally both of them claimed on the dead wild boar. The dispute
led to a fight between them. Defeated Arjunan lost his false pride/ego and
became very desperate that he was not able to win even a kaattalan. So he
worshipped Lord Shiva with flowers and surprisingly he noticed that flowers he
threw on a Shivalinga (symbolic form of Shiva for worship) falls on kaattalan. Then
he realized that the kaattalan was Lord Shiva and became very guilty of what he
did. Arjunan requested to Kattalan and
The whole play enthralled the
audience with the talented acting of the characters. The characters made
themselves to engage the audience in their play. The narration of each scenes
of the story made common people easier to understand the mudras and performance.
The young talents in Kathakali music, Ms.Aruni Jayan and Ms.Midhila Jayan
rendered the padams clearly and attractively.
The club has scheduled the date
for their next performance as 31 August 2014 with the story Narakasuravadham. Artists Kottakkal
Devadas, Kalamandalam Shanmukhan, Kalamandalam Vipin, Kottakkal Narayanan,
Kalamandalam Hareesh, Kalanilayam Manoj etc. are going to take part in the next
play.
For videos :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoUXS2MbaMs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJLkuG9p6A
For videos :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoUXS2MbaMs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJLkuG9p6A
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