‘Krishnaleela’, a relatively new contribution to the genre Attakkatha ( ‘play-story’), strives to focus on some select situations, singularly super-saturated with emotion, in the life of Krishna. Kamsa, the king of Mathura, is killed by Krishna. Kamsa’s step-sister Devaki and her husband, Vasudeva, the parents of Krishna, who were imprisoned by Kamsa, were set free after the death of Kamsa.
‘Krishnaleela’ delineates the scenes following their release when Lord Krishna meets Devaki. The performance, held under the aegis of Drisyavedi, commenced by visualising the scene wherein both Devaki and Krishna (enacted respectively by Chambakkara / Kalamandalam Vijayan and Kalamandalam Adithyan) excelled each other in deferential treatment. Krishna, learning of Devaki’s desire to see his mischievous pranks in his childhood, arranges for his foster mother Yasoda to visit Devaki, so as to enable Yasoda to describe Krishna’s pranks and miracles. Accordingly, Yasoda, essayed by Kalamandalam Shanmughan, recapitulates famous episodes such as Poothana’s salvation, Krishna’s showing Yasoda the whole universe in his mouth, his subduing the formidable snake Kaliya, his killing of Kamsa’s evil-minded delegates who appeared in the form of a huge bird and a python, and his lifting mount Govardhana with his little finger to protect his people from torrential rain.
The three actors did full justice to the roles they played. The aahaaryam (make-up and costume) and acting of both Shanmughan and Vijayan were, as always, impeccable. However, appropriate responses of co-actors would have made the performance much more meaningful and enjoyable.
ADVERTISEMENT
The finale of the performance depicting the departure of the foster mother after handing over precious Krishna to his mother proved to be unforgettable. The duration of the performance, which started late, was just two hours but strangely, most of the artistes appeared to be in a hurry to reach the ritual of the concluding benediction.
The play composed by P. Venugopal, and choreographed by veteran actor Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharoti was set to music by Kalamandalam Babu Nambudiri. Babu’s rendition, however, got entangled in contextually inappropriate features of body language, which served only to distract the attention of the rasikas. The embellishment he used to provide to the performance through the grandeur of scintillating quatrains by way of introductory and concluding prayers was, deplorably absent this time.
Vocal support provided by Kalamandalam Krishnakumar, the percussion handled by Margi Rathnakaran (maddalam), Kalamandalam Sreekanth (chenda) and Kalanilayam Krishnakumar (edakka) stood the performance in good stead.
ADVERTISEMENT