BENGALURU: It’s a busy week for Kapila Venu, a Kutiyattam practitioner who is intensely rehearsing for an upcoming show. Venu, one of the few artistes who perform Kutiyattam, a traditional performing art form -- which includes ancient Sanskrit theatre elements -- will be travelling from Thrissur to Bengaluru
for her upcoming performance, Uru bhangam.
Written in the 4th century AD, Urubhangam is claimed to be the first-ever anti-war play of India. Based on epic Mahabharata, and Venu will be portraying the part of Gandhari. “While being a very strong character, Gandhari also tends to have an extreme personality. She decided to lead the life of a blind person just for the love of her husband. So, I had to prepare myself mentally for this play more than anything else,” says Venu who has been practising this art form since the age of seven. She goes on to add that the challenge was to bring out the anger that Gandhari had when she cursed Lord Krishna.
The performance is directed by her father, Gopalan Nair Venu, who is also her guru. But Venu has never felt the pressure of performing in front of him. “I was lucky that I was exposed to art at a very early age in life with my parents both being artistes. Which is one of the reasons I never faced any real challenge when I picked this as a career. It’s something I will always be grateful for,” she says, adding that this art is one of the less-spoken about theatre forms. “Kutiyattam is as conventional and traditional as it can get. It is one of the oldest forms of theatre art which has not been explored much,” says Venu, who also collaborates with other artistes, under the guidance of her father.
Venu, who feels deeply about this art form is hoping to take it forward and is hoping to preserve it. “The charm of this art form is its element of heritage. Right now I still feel like a drop in this big ocean, but in future I would like to teach this, and bring this art form on world platform,” says Venu.The other artistes who are part of the production are Pothiyil Ranjith Chakyar (Balarama), Sooraj Nambiar (Duryodhana), and Ammannur Rajaneesh Chakyar (Ashwatthama). (Urubhangam in Kutiyattam, by Natanakairali, will be performed at Rangashankara, on January 26, 7.30 pm onwards)