The monthly Koodiyattam event of Margi featured solo performances of Margi Raman Chakyar and Margi Usha. While the former presented the second part of Neelakanta Kavi’s ‘Kalyanasougandhikam Vyayogam’ Koodiyattam, the latter picked the ‘Samudralamkhanam’ episode from Margi Sathi's ‘Sree Ramacharitham’ Nangiarkoothu for her presentation.
Bhima continues his journey
Bhima continues his journey through the dense forest in search of the divine Sougandhika flowers for his beloved. Different sights that he comes across during his journey – like the gods enjoying the dance and music of the Gandharvas, demons drinking and playing a game of dice in the company of women and a pretty lady on a swing with her maids, singing in praise of Lord Shiva – are depicted in this portion of the play. Those scenes give the actor enough possibilities to traverse through a melange of expressions. Margi Raman Chakyar presented them well enough but could have fine tuned it with better imagination and much more involvement.
A jump across the ocean
Nangiarkoothu performers mostly rely on the text ‘Sree Krishnacharitham’ and themes outside the scope of the text are presented less often. Margi Usha’s performance here was one such instance as she chose to perform the ‘Samudralankhanam’ episode from ‘Sree Ramacharitham’ penned by Margi Sathi. This segment narrates how vanaras started their search for Sita, how they located her in Lanka and how Hanuman, inspired by Jambavan, takes his long jump across the ocean.
As time passes Rama gets more and more worried as he is still unable to locate Sita and rescue her. Rama asks Lakshmana to meet Sugreeva and remind him of his promise. Meanwhile, Hanuman advices Sugreeva that he needs to fulfill his word by helping Rama to find Sita. Sugreeva along with Hanuman, Jambavan, Angada and all the other mighty vanaras meet Rama and at last the search is on. Rama calls Hanuman and gives his ring and passes on his message for Sita.
Rama in pathos, Sugreeva in fear seeing an angry Lakshmana, calm and poised Jambavan and Hanuman, Angada displaying valour – the performer is required to impersonate all these characters and more in varied moods as she moves on with the story.
Margi Usha was up to the task and succeeded in bringing life to these characters. It would have been better if the segment was split into two parts and presented in two evenings rather than rushing through the story in an attempt to make it fit into a three–hour long performance.
Performers received ample support from Margi Saji Kumar, Master Mahesh (mizhavu) and Margi Mohanan (thimila), who formed the team of percussion on both the evenings.
Kalamandalam Sindhu, Margi Amrita and Margi Vishishta assisted them by keeping time.
