Why Does Doubt Grow On You, O Manasa?

• The guru is enraged: the small, reed-thin student has messed up a critical bit of sequence yet again. The 15-year-old is being taken through a vital part of Kathakali training: the anti-hero바카라�s part in Keechakavadham, which, the boy would only later learn, has an exalted status within the canon. At one point, the lecherous Keechaka has to teasingly simulate a female character, and that바카라�s where the boy is repeatedly slipping up. The guru thra­shes him black and blue바카라�only to feel remorseful by evening, when both hug and weep in reconciliation. Followed by piping-hot parippuvadas, rolled in yesterday바카라�s newspaper.

That바카라�s a 65-year-old incident; a time when Katha­kali바카라�that beautiful, mysterious dark art forged on the crossroads of dance and theatre바카라�was in a phase of critical renascence as it met a modern epoch. A time of self-aware attention to pedagogy, to the setting of norms, to codification. Over the decades, as the form attained a rare kind of respect from the world, that kid too went on to become a celebrity, perhaps the best (and best known) exponent of his art.

바카라�I actually felt sorry I made my master cry,바카라� recalls Kalamandalam Gopi, quite the master of all he surveys today, at a sta­tely 81. Padmanabhan Nair was a sensitive, sympathetic ­tutor. 바카라�Most of us were short-fused. Beatings were integral to the classroom...whether or not we struck a truce later.바카라� It matched. A classical ballet form바카라�shining with a pre-modern light. And a training culture of near-monastic harshness, internally dictatorial, even patriarchal. All of it born바카라�soaked in a feudal ethos, including that uncommon sense of awe and beauty.

Would you want to tinker with it? To update, evolve, change? A recent workshop on the dance form brought forth some of this self-questioning. In a sense, it바카라�s that eternal combat ­between old and new바카라�a canon바카라�s own inner conflict, between its instincts for preservation and renewal. But at present, the Kathakali world is mirroring the old paradigm shift바카라�examining itself critically as the world changes around it once again.

At the eight-day event, 바카라�Navabhava바카라�, hosted in the heritage village of Karalmanna in balmy December, select masters of the art had some intense viewing of full performances by next-generation artistes and publicly articulated their analysis after each session. It was an unorthodox exercise바카라�most likely the first for any classical performing art in India바카라�and elicited both kudos and apprehensions about its efficacy.

Like benevolent experts at TV song competitions, the ­empanelled veterans seldom appeared high-handed. Beyond the usual tips and critical notes, they were largely in praise of the dozen-odd juniors. As maestro Sadanam Krishnankutty, 76, said, 바카라�I don바카라�t think we performed this well at your age. It바카라�s gladdening you have such venues for (mid-course) rectification.바카라� Still, a section of disapproving aesthetes found it bordering on spectacle. Others hailed the sessions as a harbinger of a kind of finishing-school coaching they feel Kathakali needs.

Krishnankutty, as his name-prefix implies, learned at the famous school Sadanam, near Lakkidi, another Pala­kkadan idyll just an hour away. Here, current principal K. Harikumaran conducts the ­innovative 바카라�mirror class바카라�, where ­students watch their own hand gestures and body movements in big glass panels. 바카라�I got the idea from my Santiniketan days,바카라� he says, recalling his early 바카라�90s stint in West Bengal. You sense Rabindranath Tagore바카라�s universalising, eclectic spirit ruffling the placid waters off Sadanam in riverine Peroor.

Harikumaran also makes students visualise the objects they mime. 바카라�The elephant, for one, has a prescribed, detailed gestu­ral portrayal. But I insist my boys see the animal in their mind바카라�going beyond Natyashastra,바카라� he adds. That is, going beyond a mechanical reproduction of mudra to a felt exploration of the acted part. The idea is to open up the realm of imagination in the dancer, says artiste Ettumanoor P. Kannan. 바카라�So steeped is this art in stylisation that an average pupil, after 10 years of training, is likely to be bogged down by its dry grammar,바카라� he says. 바카라�And what is Kathakali, ­after all, without mano­dharmam!바카라� That is, improvisation.

Kalamandalam, the oldest modern school for Kathakali바카라�nestled by the Nila river, a vital artery for the artform in its classical northern Kerala habitat바카라�is not imm­une to this inner turbulence. Kannan (who had been dean of its 10-year-old 바카라�MA campus바카라�) ruefully revisits the effort Kala­mandalam initiated, in 1990, to blend Kathakali training with general education. 바카라�Both classes go on together, but as wat­ertight chambers,바카라� he shrugs. So, theatre experts give classes on seminal Russian theatre exponent Konstantin Stanislavsky but no one attempts to relate his 바카라�met­hod acting바카라� to Kathakali바카라�s 400-year-old approach. It바카라�s an intriguing thought: one is inward-bound, grounded in modern psychological realism, the other majestically exterior, tight explosions of ball­etic, mimetic exaggeration.

But again, should such acade­mic openness be there at all for those training in an extremely strict discipl­ine with its own powerful aesthetic grammar? Does even normal classwork impinge too much on a pup­il바카라�s mindspace? Gopi, a typical maestro with barely middle-­school literacy, looks askance at such an arrangement, for one.

Far removed from such pedantry, veterans revel in stories about some impromptu, on-the-job learning. Pioneering ­female artiste Chavara Parukutty, 73, recalls an exigency that forced her to do Shakuntala바카라�바카라�totally new for me바카라�바카라� opposite a veteran one 바카라�60s night when the slotted artiste didn바카라�t turn up at the venue down the state. 바카라�Your senior colleagues turn into masters in the greenroom바카라�the lead musician too chipped in with clues,바카라� she smiles.

That바카라�s lore from Kathakali바카라�s southern stream. Both sides fondly mock each other. 바카라�Up north, the shishya may be playing king, but he바카라�ll be visibly submissive to his guru, playing charioteer,바카라� says aesthete Evoor K.S. Mohandas, laugh­ing. That바카라�s sure to be contested by the other side, but the nugget points to a key stage in training: role specialisation. Each student displays potential for different capabilities that바카라�s for the teacher to locate and develop. The common course ent­ails intense physical drills and eye exercises, and proceeds from basic steps to invocatory dances to simple roles to extremely slow, long ­choreographed pieces. Only after this are specific niches drawn out.

Here, Kathakali masters could look at, say, American psychologist Howard Gardner바카라�s theory of multiple intelligences, feels edu­cationist M.V. Rajan. But critic V. Kaladharan laments that syllabi have never seen any sensitive ­updates. 바카라�Rather, the tendency is to truncate content, making each lesson superficial. This, when the community must ideally look at the repertoire closely and res­tructure the content to save it from banality,바카라� he says.

Kaladharan, who has served at Kalamandalam, feels ­바카라�institutionalisation바카라� has made guru-shishya relations 바카라�purely contractual바카라�, and hence 바카라�standardisation is enveloping performing arts바카라� today. 바카라�This leaves little space for gifted ­artistes to tread off the beaten track. The present society won바카라�t tolerate freaks,바카라� he adds. One sign of homogenisation바카라�the 바카라�unprece­dented rise바카라� in students keen to spin off into PhD or secure fellowships. 바카라�Research should ideally happen out of curiosity. That바카라�s seldom the case today,바카라� says artiste Peesappilly Rajee­van, also an alumnus of School of Drama in Thrissur.

Veteran teacher M.P.S. Namboodiri recalls that his batch, which joined Kalamandalam in 1958, was the first to write an exam to pass a Katha­kali course. The study mater­ial haven바카라�t changed much since, but training time has shrunk to a third of what it used to be바카라�13-and-a-half hours a day under Patti­kkamthodi Ravunni Menon, the iconic artiste and preceptor-in-chief in the 바카라�30-40s. An imposing presence on the circuit, Menon put on his students바카라�the who바카라�s who of Katha­kali바카라�the impress of his Kalluvazhi style that effectiv­ely def­ines the mainstream today. M.P.S.바카라�taught by Men­on바카라�s frontline disciple, a cane-wielding Ramankutty Nair바카라�jokes about corporal punishment: 바카라�I don바카라�t myself employ it, but a fear of punishment can bring out your best. But seriously, tod­ay바카라�s format of high school, Plus 2, BA and MA, dilutes the focus.바카라�

Very few artistes today trained as resident shishyas. ­Madavoor Vasudevan Nair is one바카라�having lived with his guru, Chengannur Raman Pillai, for 12 years. Madavoor went modern, of course, serving Kalamandalam when it set up a wing in 1968 for the southern idiom that treats ­Kathakali more as theatre than dance.

Meanwhile, other dialects and idi­oms were also ­taking birth. In 1963, Western theatre director Eug­enio Barba stayed in Kalamandalam for months, observing the training. His close associate Jerzy Grotowski (1933-99) of Poland too drew from Kathakali while propounding his minimalist 바카라�poor theatre바카라� that banks heavily on the actor바카라�s body.

This physique-centricity had perhaps wrought an effect: Kathakali was a male universe. This even set its performative limits. The old choreography had only a few 바카라�feminine바카라� spaces: the category of love-struck demoness, and some unchanging set-pieces akin to mobile props. For the most part, the 바카라�female바카라� was indeed a prop, a presence around which the male role would be enacted (바카라�just put a pestle there,바카라� they used to say, as a dummy for not just even practice).

This changed in the 바카라�50s, with male artistes like Kudamaloor Karunakaran and Kottakkal Sivaraman, who created expansive emoting spaces for a Damayanti, Mohini or Kunti. A further decisive shift, backed by socio-­cultural changes, came with female arti­stes바카라�hitherto kept out with typical arguments. (바카라�The male gear is heavier. And the taxing chavittiyuzhichil oil massage, a monsoon ritual that reputedly fortified the spine, couldn바카라�t possibly be done on girls by their masters!바카라�) Once on stage, women first got boxed into female roles (바카라�naturally바카라�), but now even that barrier is broken바카라�strong, ­totemic males have come alive on stage via female bodies.

In 1975, a few women of the erstwhile Kochi royal family had accelerated this change, forming the Ladies바카라� Kathakali Troupe, Tripunithura, with the legendary Kalama­ndalam ­Krishnan Nair바카라�s encouragement. Geetha Varma of the ­collective says a culture of servility had harmed Kath­akali, thw­arting one바카라�s spirit to improvise. 바카라�It바카라�s unh­ealthy for an art if a pupil is only exp­ected to reproduce what the master taught,바카라� she notes. 바카라�We got gurus who let us deve­lop. That바카라�s as vital as the ­initial handholding.바카라�

That way, the Karalmanna workshop permitted some unor­thodox stage dynamics. 바카라�Here, even the middle-aged had to sometimes do minor characters, when upstarts shone as prota­gonists,바카라� reveals K.B. Raj Anand, president of the trust that hosted 바카라�Navabhava바카라�. Says organiser Mudrakhya Sasi: 바카라�Even the duo holding the curtain-cloth requires training. And definitely even the greenroom etiquette warrants reforms.바카라�

Change brings doubts of all sorts. Training these days gives insufficient emphasis to the literary side, regrets young artiste Arun Warrier. 바카라�But then,바카라� says Kaladharan, 바카라�Kathakali has ­become more demonstrative, less ­meditative.바카라� And Gopi recalls how meditativeness was once ­produced at the end of a cane!

Photographs by Naveen Rudran, Raghu Ganesh, C.N. Shyamkumar