June, 1984. Pritish Nandy, the then Editor in Chief of the Illustrated Weekly of India, ran an exclusive tell-all interview with one of the finest and best-known dancers of the land, Sonal Mansingh. “Who are the best among your contemporaries?” Nandy asked the outspoken prima donna. Pat came the reply: “Vedantam Satyanarayana Sharma, the Kuchipudi dancer, Birju Maharaj, the finest exponent of Kathak, Yamini Krishnamurthi, in Bharatanatyam. Then, there is my favourite, who I think is the absolute great of all time, Kalamandalam Gopi, the Kathakali dancer. He is a consummate artist.”
Sonal Mansingh’s was not a lone voice, she was echoing the opinion of many. Kalamandalam Gopi or ‘Gopi Aashan’ (Gopi Master), as he is fondly called, captivated the minds and hearts of both artists and art enthusiasts alike.It was quite normal last weekend, when Gopi Aashan performed his master role Nalan in Nalacharitham for three consecutive days on three different stages in the city, for audience to turn up in large numbers. The performances had more significance woven into them - they were dedicated to the memory of his Guru, the legendary Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair.
A N Raveendran, secretary of Bank Employees’ cultural organisation, BEAME, that organised the first event at TDM Hall, said, “There was a time when we, as kathakali lovers, were held spellbound by both Guru and ‘Shishya’, when Ramankutty Aashan and Gopi Aashan played Hanuman and Bheeman respectively in Kalyanasaugandhikam. Likewise, we would have preferred to die than miss a performance where the duo played Raavanan and Keechakan.”
He was speaking about the golden era of kathakali in Kerala. While Ramankutty Aashan mastered the villain roles, Gopi Aashan was the last word for hero for the audience of the time.
“It was hard not to love the predominant antagonists of the play (the ‘Kathi veshas’) when Ramankutty Aashan played it even as Gopi Aashan enacted the heroes magnificently,” said Raveendran.
Expressing similar sentiments, art critic V Kaladharan said, “Kalamandalam Ramankutty Aashan’s Aangigaabhinayam was a solid exuberance of grace. The features of his body, his forefingers and legs, especially, had extraordinary coordination and aesthetics. Gopi Aashan reformed not just the emotive style but the art form itself. The Parashurama vesham that you can see in kathakali now has been designed by Gopi Aashan.”
Other than dominating the limelight for decades, both Guru and ‘Shishya’ share another twist of destiny. Struck with ailments, both had to undergo long terms of medical treatment but both made a stunning comeback, with passion on the double.
“The days of my guru were the golden days of kathakali,” said Kalamandalam Gopi, before leaving Kochi for his next performance. Kathakali is still an art form appreciated in India and abroad but the way people treat it has changed over the years,” he said.
He was referring to the recently released 7Up ad. The 7Up, the clear lemon drink from Pepsico, had released a new campaign that carried forward its quirky positioning. In its controversial kathakali ad, a kathakali artist hands a bottle of 7Up to a girl waiting at the corner of a street.
As soon as the girl accepts it, the audio system starts playing an eccentric mix of music from varied genres like dandiya, rock n roll, and so on, to which the artist gives a not so strictly classical performance.
According to Gopi, it portrays nothing but an insult to the art form. “It is not about insulting me as an artist. It is about insulting the art form. They are business-minded and they see only the apparel of Kathakali, the ‘vesha’. It is an unfortunate predicament because the ‘vesha’ in fact is just one part of the whole performance. What is simply neglected is the regard and respect that we give for it,” said Gopi.
These art forms have an extraneous appeal which gives a wrong impression that it can be used for all purposes, said Kaladharan.
“If his guru was alive, he would have been much saddened, like the Shishya,” Kaladharan said.
