THRISSUR: Art lovers, who were forced to assume that the death of koodiyattam exponent Ammannur Madhava Chakyar had brought down the curtain on a golden era of koodiyattam and chakyarkoothu, can heave a sigh of relief now.
Madhav Babu, nephew of Ammannur and a Plus Two student of National Higher Secondary School, Irinjalakuda, who won the first prize with A grade in koodiyattam and chakyarkoothu in HSS category, has shown glimpses of a promising future in the field.
His performance creates an impression that the legacy of Ammanur, who polished the art forms to perfection through his untiring practice, devotion, dedication and determination, is in a pair of safe hands. While the prize in chakyarkoothu was for Madhav’s debut performance, he came up with a hat-trick victory in koodiyattam.
His koodiyattam presentation was on Jatayu vadham, written by Sakthi Bhadran and composed by Ammannur first and then Painkulam Narayanachakyar after Ammannur’s demise.
Jatayu was a brave vulture in the Hindu epic Ramayana, which fought against injustice.Jatayu tried to rescue Sita from Ravana while the demon king was on his way to Lanka after kidnapping her. Though Jatayu fought valiantly with Ravana, the king got the better of the bird.
However, the wounded bird helped Rama and Lakshmana in their search for Sita showing the direction in which Ravana had gone with her. Madhav Babu, Sandra Pisharadi and Nirmal Krishnan who presented the epic characters Ravana, Sita and Jatayu, respectively, on the stage, won the accolades from judges as well as audience.
In chakyarkoothu, a type of highly refined monologue where the performer narrates episodes from Hindu epics, he presented the ‘Hanumadhoothu’, under the guidance of his brother Ammannur Rajneesh Chakyar.
In which, Hanuman reveals that he was Ramadhoothan and warns Ravana that the Lord Sri Ram would destroy the entire Lanka.