Kathakali has a significant role in the arts and cultural world of God's own country (kerala). It is a combination of Katha and Kali means story and dance respectively. Earlier it was a temple art form which was performed only in confines of temples,restricted within the royal families and take place in koothambalams.
It is a result of great practice and efforts consuming lots of years.Compared to other art forms it takes more duration of time (nearly 12 years )to learn and need pricey costumes. It is emerged from ancient dance drama “Krishnanattam”.
It was originated in the end of 17th century.It is described in history that Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was very much attracted by the music and performance of Krishnanattam. In one of the occasion of some festival, he requested the “Samoothiri” of calicut for the troupe of krishnanattam. Due to the rivalry between them , “Samoothiri” declined the request and insulted him. The rest is the history, Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Attakatha(which was converted as Kathakali later).The Krishnanattam was written in Sanskrit where as Ramanattam in Malayalam. It helps the common people to understand well. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha named as Kathakali and presented to the world. As years passed new changes were included to become today’s form. In the starting of 20th century the classical art of Kerala were become ruined and it also affected the kathakali .The great Mahakavi Vallathol Narayana Menon dedicated his whole life for the recreation of this art. With the help of his friends and artists he registered a society for this in 1927.In 1930 Kerala Kalamandalam was started in kunnamkulam and started functioning.
The artists are specialized for various arts like Nadanam(acting), Pattu (music), Chenda (an instrument), makeup etc. The dancer performing the art representing characters of “Katha” (story).The nadanam consists of facial expressions convoyed by relevant movements. The kathakali music is basically related to sopanasangeetham. Vocal musicians standing behind the performers accompanied by the instruments Chenda,chengila and ilathalam.The main singer called pinnani bhagavathar with an instrument chengila is assisted by shinkidi who plays an instrument ilathalam.The bhagavathar plays a key role in kathakali. He is managing the entire performance.
The colors painted on the face play a key role which represents the characters of the katha like green represents sringara and red as roudra. There are 5 types of Veshams. These are Characteristically represents five classes, Pacha (green) represents dignified characters, Kathi (knife) represents Evil characters, Kari (black) represents low characters and Minukku used for women, sages, Brahmins etc.
Thaadi is one of the special feature of some special characters like villains, anti heroes and demons. Basically there are 3 types of thaadi (beard) .They are red, black and white. The red (chuvanna thaadi) is representing the evil and destructive characters like Asura.It is most aggressive and demoniac one. Black one (karutha thaadi) is usually representing the hunters like Kattalan. It do not indicate the anti heroes and demons. White thaadi is represents the super humans, saints and Brahmin characters. Kari (black color) is a type of make up represents the cruel and low level characters instead of pacha. There are 2 types of Kari, Ankari (male) and pen Kari (female). Eg.Kattalan,shoorpanaka
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| Pacha |
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| kari |
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| karuppu thaadi |
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| Minukku |
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| kathi |
We can identify some of the characters easily, like Lord Krishna, Kirata, Hanuman etc. But some characters are difficult to identify because of few similarities.
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| Dushasana |
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| Brahmanan |
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| Arjunan |
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| Hanuman |
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| Kirathan |
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| Sreekrishnan |
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| Duryodhana |
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| Kali |
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