It is perhaps for the first time that three renowned Kathakali maestros came together on stage to further immortalise Unnayi Warrier’s ‘Nalacharitham’.
Adding more colour to the ten-day Dakshina Festival of Classical Dances under way here, Kalamandalam Gopi, Chavara Parukutty Amma, and Madavoor Vasudeven Nair performed ‘Nalacharitham - Onnam Divasam’ on Monday evening.
The 77-year-old Gopi Asan as Nalan, 70-year-old Parukutty Amma as Damayanti, and 86-year-old Madavoor as Hamsam performed for nearly four hours. Percussion maestro Kalamandalam Sankara Warrier was on the Maddalam.
Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan was among the audience.
The organisers claimed that the performance had given a tremendous boost to Kathakali.
Gopi Asan, a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1978, has enriched the northern Kathakali style. He had excelled in the roles of Bhima and Arjuna.
Madavoor is a practitioner of the pristine south Kerala style of Kathakali. Though he began by enacting female roles he later handled male roles with ease and grace excelling mainly in anti-hero roles like Ravana, Duryodhana and Keechaka. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2011.
Parukutty Amma started performing Kathakali at the age of 16 at a time when it remained a male sphere impermissible to women.
She had excelled even in the role of male characters.
