Katakali fever - tiruvilla

Having been totally amazed by the short katakali we saw in Kochin, we decided we have to see a "real" 6 hour katakali. the lonely planet mentioned a place (tiruvilla), about two hours away from allepy which has katakali every night for free at the local hindu temple.

we had some trouble locating a place to sleep, and that's when we met sija, which we will tell all about in the next post.

that night we enjoyed a very nice katakali about king nala - he is going to see a princess (his future wife) and on the way he meets a swan which tells him of the princess' beauty. nala makes the swan swear to tell the princess about him. thus they both fall in love from hearsay only.

we met a nice indian man there who learns katakali as a hobby and is also a proffesional photographer. he explained us a little more about katakali and advised us to stay another night, because the next day the very best actors of katakali perform one of the most beautiful plays.

the next night we arrived and met a woman named agatha pillar, who wrote a few books explaining about katakali and that have a transcript of the "play" - that is, the song that is sung as background (and story) for the dance.
armed with this knowledge, we enjoyed a play about an old friend of Krishna, who has become very poor over the years, journey out to meet his friend. they have a happy reuniun and reminisce about old times (both good and bad).

this play is especially beautiful because it is not about killing monsters and bravery but about feelings, memories, and nostalgia, and the actors really shone through in the way they expressed their joys, fears and memories, without saying a single word.


we now start to qoute from the book "katakali plays in english" by Agatha Jane Pillar, (a lady we met sometime later, and we will tell the whole story when the time comes). her excellent introduction will serve us well here when we try to explain the beauties and intricacies of katakali, an art form we have learned to love deeply and admire. "Kerala, the southwest state of india, is the home of several ancient performing arts, and foremost dance/drama katakali..."

katakali is the art of dance, the art of communication without speech, through body langauge and mudras (gesture sign langauge). katakali comprises the beauties of poetry, music, classical ballet and drama, all in one package. it incorporates the kinetic beauty of rythm and dance, as well as the auditory beauty of music, and the emotional/intellectual beauty of drama. not to mention the plastic arts behind the visual feast of otherworldly costume and facial makeup !acting itself is divided in indian classical dancing into four elements:1) speech (provided by the background singers who tell the story and give melody and by the mudras hand-gestures)2) costuming and makeup3) bodily movements (the dance itself)4) projection of emotions (mostly eye and facial movements)


all this acting and mime is syncronized with whatever dancing is suitable to the context, and with the rythmic drums and the chanting singers. it is a technical miracle how all these different elements can be brought to life, in perfect syncronicity, without even prior rehearsal!all characters in katakali are of certain broad types, which are indicated by their makeup: green for devine, red and black for demonic, yellow/pink for females etc.