When Kalamandalam Gopi appeared on the stage of the Sreebhadra auditorium in Thrissur after 18 months at home, there was huge excitement. The legendary Kathakali artiste, who hundreds throng to watch, went on to give a performance similar to a cholliyattam (enactment of excerpts without make-up and costume), and followed it up by staging select scenes from the play Kirmeeravadham, composed by Kottayathu Thampuran.
Poignant portrayals
Aptly titled ‘Bhavaprabhavam’ (splendour of expressions) Gopi presented emotionally charged scenes from various Kathakali plays beginning with ‘Ajithahare’, the famous padam of Kuchela addressing Krishna from
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He later switched to Karna’s soliloquy from the relatively new Kathakali play Karnasapadham (Karna’s Pledge). Immediately preceding the Kurukshetra battle, sitting on the banks of the Ganga, Karna asks himself who he is. He wonders whether Radha and Adhiratha are his real parents. As one who has dexterously enacted the role several times, Gopi once again made the audience empathise with Karna’s emotional turmoil.
The actor then moved on to two non-textual
The second piece was almost an adaptation of the
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Gopi’s minimal movements and immaculate expressions made the last two pieces from Nalacharitam Day III unforgettable. These were ‘Vijane bata mahati’ depicting Bahuka’s agony over separation from his consort, Damayanti, who he had abandoned in the forest, and ‘Marimaankanni’, dealing with his nerve-racking reaction to the news of his wife getting married again. However, in the absence of aharya (facial make-up, costume, ornaments and headgear), Gopi felt a conspicuous void in his performance.
Singers Kottakkal Madhu, Kalamandalam Hareesh and Vishwas provided support to the actors, while Kalamandalam Krishnadas on the chenda and Kalamandalam Raj Narayanan on the maddalam empowered the visuals with powerful and soft strokes.
The author is a critic and connoisseur of traditional art forms of Kerala.