Among Sanskrit plays staged in Koodiyattam, playwright Sakthibhadra’s composition Acharyachoodamani (The Wondrous Crest Jewel) enjoys a unique position. Each of its seven acts has won wide recognition as exceptionally stage-worthy. Among them, the fifth act, Asokavanikankam (depicting events in the Asoka garden), is counted as the pinnacle in offering ample scope for acting. It narrates Ravana’s fervent but futile attempt to curry favour with Sita held in captivity in his garden.
The act’s introductory scene portrays the agony of Ravana’s loyal wife Mandodari, who learns that her husband is infatuated with a married woman. She narrates to her maid a nightmare in which she dreamt that she had become a widow.
This part of the episode is revealed through a dialogue between the queen and her maid. The scene closes as they proceed to the garden to hide themselves in a bower so as to watch Ravana pining for a favourable response from Sita. It is from this hideout that Mandodari steps out to stop her husband’s attempt to strike Sita with his sword.
The above scene involving Mandodari and her maid fell out of favour in due course on account of a general consensus among experts, who were not convinced of its indispensability. In a recent performance at Theerthapadamandapam in Thiruvananthapuram, veteran Usha Nangiyar presented in nirvahanam some events relating to the relevant context in Mandodari’s life.
Usha Nangiyar as Mandodari during the Koodiyattam recital
After the summary narration ( samkshepam ) of the birth of the rakshasa clan, she casts her mind back to several crucial events in the story of Ravana that made him a powerful emperor. Usha Nangiyar’s presentation proved pleasant throughout. However, she could have paid more attention to her costume. The performance brought to the fore the mismatch between the theme and the salient feature germane to the genre of the art form, especially when Ravana’s penance, exuding the height of masculine vigour, was presented as an intrinsically feminine ( lasya ) type of performance.
Mandodari’s transformational acting as Ravana was flawless. However, it left the impression that her presentation would have done justice to delineating Mandodari’s mind had the acting been mostly from the viewpoint of the queen in agony rather than Ravana’s.
The percussion, handled by Kalamandalam Rajeev and Kalamandalam Jayaraj on the mizhavu and Kalanilayam Unnikrishnan on the edakka, was impeccable. The gestures, movements as well as even subtle changes in the mental state of the actress or character were followed with commendable precision, breathing life into the performance. Athira’s rendering of the quatrains stood out in clarity and prominence, projecting the emotions behind the lines.
The performance was held under the aegis of the Sangeet Nataka Academy’s Kutiyattam Kendra in collaboration with Chathakutam Krishnan Nampiar Mizhavu Kalari.
