PALAKKAD: Kalamandalam M P S Namboodiri is on a mission to publish a book to attract the younger generation to the complex, colourful world of kathakali.
Speaking to TNIE at his home on the banks of the Bharathapuzha, near Shoranur , the 81-year-old said that ever since joining Kerala Kalamandalam as a faculty over five decades ago, he has delivered lecture demonstrations in the country and abroad and has always longed to attract more children to the art form.
“I believe that children need to be educated on the dance-drama art form, which is the most powerful theatre in the world. Since kathakali is complex, I wanted to simplify it so as to make it easier to understand. The book’s narration begins by breaking down kathakali into its basic components of ‘katha’ (story) and ‘kali’ (performance), so that children can understand that it is a game of storytelling,” says Namboodiri, who was conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2013.
“The book is interactive in nature. It will have a number of illustrations and drawings. Teachers will throw questions to students and elicit answers. There will be ‘thalam’ and ‘ragam’.
There will also be explanations of technical terms,” he said. “Similar books on other dance forms from other parts of the country have proved to be popular. With kathakali, there are no short cuts. In order to achieve perfection, it has to be performed repeatedly — it involves time and patience. Therefore, even when kathakali is simplified, the core portion of the artform cannot be tweaked and the aesthetics should not be diluted beyond a point,” he said.
“It will deal with how it originated, with Kottarakara Thampuran narrating the story of the Ramayana. The artform was initially named ‘ramanattam’. However, since the story of Mahabharatha cannot be performed with ramanattam, it was renamed kathakali, which is generic in nature,” he said.
Namboodiri has written three books. The first, titled Kathayilude ranga paada charithram (History of performing tradition of kathakali), published in 2007, was authored jointly with Killimangalam Vasudevan Namboodiripad . This is a also reference guide for MA classes at Kalamandalam. The second is a compilation of lectures titled Pouhana, which means to evaluate in Hawaiian.
“It was released while I was a visiting professor in the US,” he recalls. “The third book, Mashiyile Thilakangal, was released on my 80th birthday and is a memoir. The vice-chancellor of Kalady Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, M V Narayanan, released the book.
The Union government has assigned Namboodiri as a senior fellowship for a two-year project titled ‘Traditional teaching methodology in kathakali and its challenges’. “During my childhood days in Manjeri, I used to attend kathakali performances, which drew me to the art. Its colourful costumes and rhythms attracted me. I joined Kalamandalam in 1958 as a student for ‘vesham’. Gopi Asan, who is only a few years older than me, was a faculty and I was among his first five students,” said Namboodiri.