After last two appetizers of Mohiniyattam & Kathakali let us come to the main course. Here are the photos of 1000th one-act show of Mantapa Prabhakara Upadhya for which the celebration was held on 2nd April at Alva’s.

It was a grand day of celebration with an array of cultural extravaganza brimming with skills, mastery and punctuality in timing which was only possible under the able leadership of Dr. Mohan Alva.

As mentioned in the beginning of the Mantapa’s performance by his mentor Shatavadhani R. Ganesh who mooted the concept of “solo” Yakshagana, 1000th performance will be no different from the earlier 999, but the significance we give to these numbers that makes 1000th and unique event.

Venu Visarjana was the subject of 1000th performance at Moodu Venu Pura (Sanskrit name for Moodabidri). It was loosely based on Pu.Thi. Narasimhachar’s Gokula Nirgamana which has Krishna’s separation from Radha as its theme and reaches spiritual heights of viraha bhava.

Words are not sufficient to explain this great performance of Mantapa Prabhakara Upadhya. So I will allow my photos to speak for themselves.

My good friend G.N Ashokvardhana has written a detailed article at his blog ಸಾವಿರಕಂಬದ ಊರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾವಿರದ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ on the whole days celebration.

Kathakali

As the second cultural highlight of Mantapa Prabhakara Upadhya’s 1000th Performance of Ekavyakti Yakshagana celebration we were treated with Kathakali performance by Mudrakhya of Palakkad. Mudrakhya is an organisation established to work for the cause of Kathakali & related art forms of Kerala.

Demonstration of Aangica Abhinaya

Before the actual performance Kathakali there was a lecture demonstration on the various abhinaya aspect of Kathakali by manager of Mudrakhya team K. Shashi and Sadanam Krishnadas. This demonstration helped us, who had very little knowledge about this art form to understand gestures of Kathakali.

Narakasura

It was followed by beautiful rendition of Narakasura by K.M Nandakumar Nair who has spent over 50 years practicing Kathakali.

Behind the screen

Nandakumaran born in 1945, hails from the serene village of Desamangalam. Nandkumaran learned the art of Ottanthullal during the 1954-59 under Kalamandalam Divakaran Nair & Malabar Kannan Nair, the senior instructors at the Kerala Kalamandalam, Chruthuruthy, Kerala.

Kathakali

His training in Kathakali commenced in 1963, at the PSV Natyasangham, Kottakkal, under the tutelage of Kottakkal Krishnankutty Nair. After his student days, Nandakumaran served the PSV Natyasangham as a performer and a teacher till 1998. He still continues to be a free lance performer, teacher and resource person of Kathakali.

Kathakali

Distribution of the task of elucidating emotions to the entire body is the observed uniqueness of Kathakali. This very specific technique separates Kathakali from its parallel forms like Koodiyattom & Krishnanattom. This was perfectly elucidated by Nandakumaran in Narakasura

Narakasura

Katha = Story. Kali = play. Even though it is not the rigid meaning related to theatre it is just enacting a story. The text for this purpose is referred to as Aattakkatha meaning a story written to be produced as a Kathakali.

Kathakali

Kathakali as we see today is just more than four centuries old. The popular legend behind Kathakali may be quickly reviewed to establish that there was a great revolutionary and socialistic philosophy that played into the evolution of Kathakali. Zamorin, a local chieftain in the northern Kerala was a patron of Krishnanattom, essentially a dance drama that deals only with the story of Krishna, only within the premises of Krishna-temples.

Kathakali

A local chieftain from Kottarakkara, southern Kerala, invited the Zamorin to present Krishnanattom in Kottarakkara. This was turned down by the Zamorin, with a statement that Krishnanattom is not for the unscholarly audience of southern Kerala. With a vengeance, the royal chieftain of Kottarakkara gave rise to Ramanattom. Ramanattom enacted stories from Ramayana and other epics also. In due course of time, as it began to encompass many stories, Ramanattom evolved into a medium with bigger dimension, to ‘Play any Story’ thus becoming Kathakali.

Closeup

Nanadakumaran was amply assisted in background score by A. M Ravindran and Sadanam Jothish Babu in vocals, Kalamandala jayakrishna and Krishna Praveen Poduval in Chande, Srijith Marar in Maddale.

Jump

Capturing very fine movement and expressions of Kathakali was a great challenge to me. Using two dimensional still medium like photography to depict vibrant art form of Kathakali that too on a stage cluttered with huge distracting writing in the background was really a challenge. Video would show the finer movements but how to get that in Photography. I tried in this photograph by shooting with very low shutter speed (1/25th of a second). You will notice that only the right hand of Narakasura and Chende stick are mobile in the photograph with rest of the picture are still thus conveying a very subtle movement of the artist.

Slow speed photo