Kavalam Narayana Panicker, poet-dramatist, who passed away here late Sunday, drew inspiration from Kerala’s rich folk traditions to evolve a unique form of theatre.
Dance, music, martial arts and myriad forms of art came together in his total theatre practice. The focus was as much on the rhythmic body movements and the accompanying music as it was on the text being acted out.
All that came together in one of his most popular works, Avanavan Kadamba , his collaboration with filmmaker G. Aravindan, which was enacted first in 1976. Structured as a play of conflicting narratives, it ruminated on life and its purpose.
Inspiration
But his influences were not just limited to the folk arts of Kerala. Inspiration came from all across, from the Sanskrit plays of Kalidasa and Bhasa to the tragedies of Shakespeare. Among his landmark works are Teyyateyyam , Karnabharam , Oo ru Bhangam and Shakuntalam . Actor Mohanlal played Karnan in Karnabharam .
He tread a different path as a lyricist in Malayalam films too, the most memorable of those lines being written for Aravindan in Kummatti , from the quirky Arambatherambath to Karukare Kaarmukil . He won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Lyrics twice, in 1978 for Vadakakkoru Hridayam and in 1982 for Marmaram .
Trained as a lawyer, more due to compulsions from family, he soon left that profession to explore his way in the arts. He wrote the first of his plays Panchayat in the early 1950s, in which he acted too. One of his key contributions was as the Secretary of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi. Taking charge in 1961, over the next decade as one of the longest to serve in that post, he documented the works of legendary artistes.
Later, he shifted to Thiruvananthapuram and near the banks of the Karamana River he set up ‘Sopanam,’ which became his platform for the next five decades. It also became a training ground for many young dramatists, actors and musicians.
He was awarded Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1983 and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2002 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007.
