Balivijayam (Bali’s victory), penned by Kalloor Nampoothiripadu, is the story of how Bali, the mighty monkey king, avenged the insult to his father, Indra. Ravana’s son Meghanada had imprisoned Indra when he attacked the heavens, the abode of Indra.
Bali avenges the insult to his father by trapping Ravana in the coils of his tail and humbles him. An abridged version of Balivijayam was staged in Thiruvananthapuram recently.
The performance began with a traditional thiranottam , followed by a slow tempo scene in Ravana’s chamber when he and his wife Mandodari were in a romantic mood.
Subsequently, Narada arrives in Lanka and his entry itself becomes a treat to rasikas. The sage ensures Ravana’s undivided attention with a song that appears to extol him, but embeds in it epithets such as ‘brother of Kumbhakarna, Vibhishana and Surpanakha’, implications of which turn out to be vexatious to the king.
In response to Ravana’s query as to whether there remains anyone in the whole universe valiant enough to stand upright before him, Narada mentions that Bali is the only living being who does not accept Ravana’s sovereignty.
Without the slightest hesitation, Narada proclaims that for Bali, Ravana is insignificant like a blade of grass.
A scene from Balivijayam
The demon king decides to punish Bali suitably. In an attempt to impress Narada, Ravana narrates how he happened to be instrumental in effecting the reunion of Parvati and Lord Siva after they had had a tiff over the Ganga resting in Siva’s tresses.
In the final scene, the demon king’s arrogance is crushed befittingly.
However, Bali treats the humbled Ravana nobly, duly recognising his status as the king of Lanka.
Peesapally Rajeevan, Kalamandalam Adithyan, Kalamandalam Parthasarathi and Margi Sukumaran donned the roles of Ravana, Narada, Bali and Mandodari respectively, supported by ace vocalists and accompanists. Artistes representing different schools and modes of training, however, functioned in perfect sync.
Rajeevan’s delineation of Ravana surveying elaborately with his eyes the forbiddingly massive shape of Mt Kailas was a little dragging in spite of the excellence of the orchestral support he received. Along with Adithyan, Rajeevan brought in a dash of humour that was appropriate to the context on most occasions.
Sukumaran’s performance was reminiscent of the traditional female role or ‘sthreevesham’ on the Kathakali stage before the advent of gifted thespians like Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair and Kottakkal Sivaraman.
Sadanam Sivadas and Kalamandalam Vishnu rendered the popular songs and quatrains of the play-text to classical music.
The percussion was handled by Kalamandalam Krishnadas and Kalanailayam Manoj on the chenda and the maddalam respectively. Towards the close of the performance, the chenda and the maddalam were played by Kalanilayam Krishnakumar and RLV Sudeva Varma respectively.
The programme was held under the aegis of Drisyavedi.
