The Sanskrit theatre of Koodiyattom is being performed like Kathakali, SPIC MACAY founder Kiran Seth has said. He was delivering a talk on ‘Saving the tiger...maybe also Koodiyattom’ at the Department of Music of the University of Kerala here on Wednesday.
Mr. Seth said the difference between Kathakali and Koodiyattom was subtle, and young people should be able to distinguish between the two. Koodiyattom should be kept alive, and not be taken for Kathakali, he said.
This was the case not only with Koodiyattom but also with many other arts. For instance, the Gotuvadyam was hardly being played in concerts; only the electrical Gotuvadyam could be heard.
In Carnatic music, few people sang ragam, thanam, and pallavi. “The introspection that the Carnatic tradition should take one is getting lost because no one is ready to listen,” he said.
Few practitioners
The Rudra Veena, the Carnatic Veena, and the Dhrupad genre of music all had few original practitioners, he said.
The first step to correct this had to come from those who were learning music and those who were perceptive even though they were not formally trained. “Everyone should train themselves to distinguish between what is true and what is not.”
Mr. Seth pointed out that as the audience, one tended to settle for less. Great artistes could take those in the audience to heights, but people were looking mostly for entertainment. “Besides music for entertainment, we should also have one that elevates. Today, that domain is shrinking. One should not be satisfied with hearing a kriti; one should go with the philosophy of it,” he said.
Mr. Seth called on the audience to make an effort to understand the intangible domain which made life more meaningful.
“It has been experimented with extensively in the country. However, because its results take time to show, belief in the processes suffers in this age of instant gratification. The Rudra Veena, the Gotuvadyam, and Koodiyattom are some of the casualties,” he said. He urged the people to revive the city chapter of SPIC MACAY. Department head in-charge Achuthsankar S. Nair proposed the vote of thanks.
