Author: IKKF

If Mooss managed to condense the epic Mahabharatha into a play spanning a few hours, Unnayi Warrier chose to expand one of its minor sub-plots into epic proportions in Kathakali. Nearly three hundred years after its creation, Nalacharitham still rules the roost as the most eloquent and poetic of all Kathakali plays. The drama spans four days (or nights) of performance and each of them are cherished as stand alone creations by Kathakali lovers. Moonnam Divasam or the third day begins to find the protagonists (hero Nala and his consort Damayanti) at the nadir of their fortunes. Defeated, heartbroken and…

Written by Kalloor Neelakanthan Namputhiripad in the early part of nineteenth century (almost midway between the two plays above), Balivijayam is one of the very few Kathakali plays that has Hasya rasa (comedy) as its core instead of being an incidental diversion on stage. There are three characters – Narada, Ravana and Bali – and each of them have equal prominence in the narrative. Each of them represents a principal character type in Kathakali respectively being Minukku, Kathi and Thadi. Ravana, the indomitable demon emperor and Bali, the ferocious monkey king, both shed their inherent gravity and adopt humorous miens…

Santhanagopalam was authored by Mandavapally Ittirarissa Menon and predates Duryodhanavadham by nearly a century. Menon wrote two plays emphasizing the Vaishnava Bhakthi tradition and both became very popular. Of these Rukmangadacharitham was staged in IKKF 2016. Santhanagopalam once again follows a narrative from Bhagavatham that is all too well-known. The theater adaptation however offers a pleasant variation – in the form of the unnamed Brahmana who overshadows the protagonists Arjuna and Krishna with his merry-inducing performance. Though afflicted by tragedy (which Arjuna endeavors to alleviate), his lively disposition and mischievous demeanor endears him to the spectator. Delectable music is another…

Penned by Aryanarayanan Mooss in the second half of nineteenth century, this is considered a masterpiece of plot editing. It summarizes the epic of Mahabharatha brilliantly. Intelligently asserting that the broader narrative is well known to its audience, it cherrypicks dramatic scenes that captures the essence of rivalry between Pandavas and Kauravas and its inevitable denouement. Duryodhana the anti-hero, Krishna the diplomatic pacifist and Bhima as incarnation of rage and vengeance assume primacy at different parts of the plot. There is an apocryphal tale about how the author Mooss was granted a blessing that Duryodhanavadham would always be unmatched in…

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