KOCHI: Gently winding across the Paruthi Pulli village, in the once glorious Nila river valley civilisation, is the Bharatapuzha. Associated with this river are a number of artisans who live on its fringes.
One such artisan is K C Ramakrishnan, the last among the practising paava kathakali puppeteers of Kerala.
In Kochi, for an event organised by travel company Blue Yonder and designer Lakshmi Menon’s Ammumathiri, Ramakrishnan stands out, dressed in a simple mundu and the Basmam applied vividly on his forehead. Soon, he demonstrates how he manoeuvres the fingers to bring his Kathakali puppets to life.
The movements are very fluid. “Glove puppetry is not as easy. It requires at least five years of continuous practice to master the art form. The rhythm, of course, is very important,” he said.
And unlike the original Kathakali, paava Kathakali cannot be performed for two hours at a stretch. “We have shortened the song sequences because it is difficult to hold the audience’s attention for more than 45 minutes,” he said.
The paava Kathakali is accompanied with Kathakali songs and instruments including the Chenda and maddalam, among others. Ramakrishnan has been doing this all his life, along with his forefathers, who came from Renigunta in Andhra Pradesh.
“They were well versed in the Aryamaala puppetry, (A Tamil folk drama), but on their migration to Palakkad, they learned the Kathakali. It has stayed in our family ever since,” he said.