Karnashapadam

Having been completely alienated from Kathakali ever since I left home a couple of months ago, I was indeed in for a pleasant surprise when I realised that my monthly visit home this time had coincided exactly with the Kathakali performance at our neighbouring temple, Punnakkal Bhagawathi Kshetram. To add to my delight, the story being staged was Karnashapadam, with the greatest artist of all time, Kalamandalam Gopi donning the role of Karnan. However, even though the performance couldn’t be called superlative by any standards, it was wholesome enough to nourish my Kathakali-starved soul to life again!



The story kicked off with Duryodhan’s thiranottam, followed by his scene with his consort, Bhanumathi. Kalanilayam Gopinath, who performed the role of Duryodhan, gave quite a lukewarm performance, with manodharmams that didn’t quite fit the character. For example, when Bhanumathi mournfully asserts, “poril bhavanu mrithyu neridum engilo veridum mama jeevan verenthu njan cheyvu”, instead of brushing it off with light-hearted arrogance and self-assurance that is typical of the character, Gopinathan’s Duryodhanan gets highly affronted, and feigns anger at Bhanumathi, refusing to make further conversation with her. Such aberrant manodharmams coupled with sloppy mudras made for quite a sluggish performance on his part.



However, Bhanumathi, played by Kalamandalam Shanmughan was indeed a class act. His character had both the maturity the role of a queen demanded, as well as the distress of a warrior’s wife fearing for her husband’s fate at the battlefield. With such amazing grip on his character, Shanmughan's Bhanumathi was the perfect match for Gopiasan’s Karnan in the beautiful padams that followed- sodari maharajni and Vatsalya varidhe…. The gradual dissolution of sorrow and fear, getting replaced by hope and joy at Karnan’s loyalty towards her king was enacted to perfection by Shanmughan, lending a rare breed of elegance to the character.



What can possibly be said about Kalamandalam Gopi…? Karnan is probably the most complex characters in Mahabharata and it takes great force of personality to portray him on stage with all the intricacies of the character. Gopiasan executed the role brilliantly with apt manodharmams that spoke about the turmoil of Karnan’s disturbed mind. The pakarnattom wherein in Kunti’s eyes inexplicably brim with tears when she chances upon Karnan by the wayside is an attom not usually done in Karnashapadam, but it struck a resonant chord with the audience, adding more depth and meaning to the story. He wove together all the snippets of Karna’s life that he enacted in such a way that the dilemma of his life was evident in the narrative itself –how his friend Ashwathama doubts his status as a charioteer’s son while Rajaguru Drona refuses to teach him the art of warfare as he is not a kshatriya-and how Parashurama, on the other hand, accuses him of being a kshatriya and curses him for having feigned his origin.



It is when Karnan is grappling with such unsettling thoughts that Kunti enters the scene. Played by Kalamandalam Rajashekharan, Kunti proved to be a complete fiasco in the otherwise moving scenes between Kunti and Karnan. Inspite of his age and experience, Rajashekhan’s Kunti was simply no match to Gopiasan’s Karnan and all he could do was to stand and whimper along while he latter exhilarated the audience with his rendition of the padam shravanakutharamathakiya vakyam. In the scenes that ensued, even though Gopiasan outdid himself with a powerhouse performance, he was accompanied by a damp and inanimate Kunti who gave a lopsided feel to the entire show.



It would be extremely unfair of me to wind up this piece without mentioning Kalanilayam Unnikrishnan and Babu Namboothiri who provided excellent vocal support to the performance along with Krishnadas on the Chenda and Prakash on the maddalam. Thus, I guess I can safely say that in spite of an apathetic Duryodhanan and a listless Kunti, Gopiasan’s Karnan, Shanmughan’s Bhanumathi and the vocal support made the show a truly spectacular one-one that I would play and replay in the back of my mind until I get to watch another performance again.

Nalacharitham Nalam Divasam

Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets...In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again.
- Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)


Kathakali aficionados would undoubtedly agree that Nalacharitham is one such attakatha that weaves romance, terror, despair and suspense into such a gripping tale, that the magic of the performance is never lost, however many times one might watch it. Thus, the excitement and expectations among the audience was almost palpable at the Changumpuzha Park last evening, when the final quarter of Nalacharitham was staged with some of the greatest artists of today, Kalamandalam Gopi, Margi Vijayakumar and Kalamandalam Shanmughan donning the roles of Nalan, Damayanti and Kesini respectively.



Not much need to be said about Gopiasan, who as always, gave a superlative performance, and took the show to a truly different level altogether. With Kathakali being the singular art form which allows its artists to personalise their characters according to their taste and understanding, it is perhaps only Gopiasan, who has breathed life into his characters in such a manner that made one feel that, had the same character played by anybody else, it would have seemed a mere travesty of the original.



However, Margi Vijay Kumar, one of the most acclaimed artists today in sthreevesham, failed to impress, making one wish wistfully of the Nalacharitham of yesteryears when Gopiasan’s Nalan had found his perfect match in the truly breathtaking Damayanti by Kottakkal Shivaraman. Even though Vijayakumar performed the initial scenes quite well, ably assisted by Shanmughan’s Kesini, he fell woefully short of the audiences expectations in the electrifying last scene which, when performed by stalwarts like Shivaraman asan, usually takes the audience to a truly cathartic level before divine intervention in the story takes it to a happy climax.


Nevertheless, Margi Vijayakumar’s non –impressive performance was more than compensated by Shanmughan’s Kesini. Easily the prettiest face in the business, Kalamandalam Shanmughan has risen in the ranks of the current generation of artists with his deep understanding and mature portrayals of characters. Restrained and subtle in his portrayal of Kesini, Shanmughan proved yet again, that a talented artist can turn around even the smallest part in a story and lend elegance and importance to that part.

The vocal support by Kottakal Narayanan and Narayanan Namboothiri was also far from satisfactory. Some may beg to differ, but for someone who has grown listening to Shankaran Embrathiri and Hyderali, I felt like the Narayanan duo simply took the magic away from the incredibly poignant lines of Unnai Varyiar. One could not but wish for a more soulful rendition, especially during the last scene, where it is actually the music that sets the mood of the scene.