Shankadeep Ghosh (Class VIII)

SHANKADEEP GHOSH (CLASS VIII)  

ABHINAV BHARATI HIGH SCHOOL

KATHAKALI INTRODUCTION 

Kathakali is a major form of classical Indian traditional dance. The meaning of the word katha-kali is story telling/play so by the the name only shows that it’s is a story-play genre of art but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up, costumes and variety of facemasks which is generally worn by the male actor. It is a Hindu art in Malayalam-speaking south-western part of Kerala. The exact place from where kathakali is originated is still not fully known , but the style completely developed around 17th century according to local talks it’s root are in the temples and folks (some of those are krishnanattan and some of religious dramas in southwestern part of India). Kathakali is differs from other classical dance as it also comprises movements from ancient martial arts kalari or kalaripayattu, kathakali's structure and details of it’s art form developed in courts and theatre of Hindu principalities unlike other dance forms which came into existence from temples or monasteries. The traditional theme of the kathakali are mostly based on folk mythologies, religious legends, spiritual ideas ,local talks based on Hindu epics and puranas, Vedas . BASIC INFORMATIONS ABOUT KATHAKALI There are many plays which are based on the old Hindu texts. There are four plays which are written by Unnayi Variyar in 17th century which are related to the mythological story of Nala -damyanti which is found in Mahabharata epic ,the kathakali play version is special in it self as it this version develops the character their inner states the emotions and their circumstances more beautifully than the written version of the older text. ABOUT IT’S MUSIC The language of the song used for kathakali is known MANIPRAVALAM ,though the songs are set in ragas based on the microtone – heavy carnatic music, there is a distinct style of plain-note rendition, which is known as SAPANAM style , typically Kerala style. This type of rendition takes it’s roots from the temple songs which is used to be sung at the time when kathakali came into existence. As we are talking about the music used in the kathakali let's also talk about what a traditional kathakali play consists of, a traditional kathakali play consists of two interconnected parts, the thirdperson shlokas and the first person kadams. The shlokas are in Sanskrit and describe the action of the scene while padams are dialogues in in Malayalam for actors to interpret and play. A padam has three parts : A PALLAVI , ANUPALLAVI AND CHARANAM all of which are set to Ancient ragas(musical mode) based on the mood as outlined in ancient Sanskrit text Natyashastra. The mean elements and aspect of kathakali are written in natya shastra. What’s the position of kathakali in current day Previously in a traditional kathakali there was hereditary process one family used to have a guru who used to pass the knowledge of kathakali to one generation to other but, now day is there are professional schools which train students kathakali there are many School present in India special in the south part and there are many school which are present all over the world like some schools are found in western part of Europe and US. Kathakali also enhances students physical fitness body flexibility sense of rhythm and many more things. Nowadays all over the world some adaptations of Shakespeare's stories are also shown as kathakali plays and there are women also who are participating as kathakali was hugely male dominated. We as a country India are very proud to have a classical dance form kathakali which is related to martial arts ,yoga our Vedic history and related to our puranas and which is so popular all over the world.