Among the four Kathakali plays penned by Aswati Thirunal Thampuran (1756 — 1794), Poothanamoksham (Salvation of Poothana) stands out on account of the number and variety of venues wherein it continues to receive a warm welcome.
The legendary Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair earned his popular pet name ‘Poothana Krishnan’ in his early years, since his delineation of the character Poothana in her disguise as Lalitha, a singularly charming lass, used to captivate one and all.
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The play was originally designed for a full-night performance, but has been, in due course, mostly confined to the last scene only, thereby requiring just one actor and reducing the duration of the performance to about an hour. The scene commences with an excellent quatrain introducing Lalita, wearing golden necklaces and with a moonlight-like smile.
Trip to Ambadi
Poothana, a demoness, who serves the wicked King Kamsa, is ordered to kill all newborns in the kingdom. Assuming her attractive form of Lalitha, she arrives in the cowherds’ village of Ambadi. She makes a cursory survey of the surroundings and becomes convinced that even the divine king of serpents, the 2,000-tongued Ananta, would prove incompetent to satisfactorily narrate the attractions there.
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She describes the scenes thus: ‘Lo! Here is a high-rise mansion, with an exceptionally beautiful courtyard and a garden which is pleasantly cool since a stream flows beside it. No other place appears comparable to it, which seems to excel even the heaven. Lovely women roaming around and dancers showcasing their talents will enhance the pangs of love in the hearts of those separated from their spouses. Mount Govardhana with dancing peacocks provides a special attraction.’ Then she notices cattle moving about and is specially attracted by the pleasant smell of buttermilk. All these give her clear clues of the significant fact that it is the abode of baby Krishna. Descriptive scenes of her encounter with Krishna takes the narrative forward. She breastfeeds the baby after smearing poison on her breasts. But Krishna kills her and she attains salvation.
While presenting Poothanamoksham , ace actors adorn almost every moment with subtle nuances involving imaginative improvisation. The actor has ample opportunities to make the presentation aesthetically beautiful and realistic. Delineation in detail of the peacock-dance, the histrionic skill of dancers, the mutual affection of a cow and her calf, the traditional mode of churning milk for obtaining butter, a drop of milk splashing into a woman’s eye causing a momentary irritation, and Lalita’s catastrophic confusion as to within which fold of her garment she had carefully hidden the packet of poisonous powder and so on are descriptive scenes that help the artiste showcase his/her skills. At one point, she is overwhelmed by maternal feelings but her fear of punishment at the hands of Kamsa forces her to stifle those feelings and go ahead with her dastardly act.
Kalamandalam Vijayakumar, donning the role of Lalitha, however, eschewed most of the flights of context-sensitive improvisations. One wonders whether it was due to lack of time at his disposal or an experiment in ensuring freshness in presentation. As always, Vijayakumar’s make-up and costume were excellent.
The play text, providing numerous possibilities of experimentation, was rendered into flawless music by Kalamandalam Krishnakumar, supported skilfully by Hari Sankar, a newcomer in the field. The percussion was handled by Margi Venugopal and Margi Ratnakaran.
The programme was held under the aegis of Drisyavedi.