Traditional Keralan art - Kathakali

Kathakali is an art form which literally means ‘story play’. It is a mixture of dance, mime and pantomime! Drummers and singers accompany the performers who tell the story through their precise movements, particularly mudras (hand gestures) and facial expressions. The stories are the Hindu epics and usually tell about good and evil, frailty and courage, poverty and prosperity, war and peace. Originally the stories were told in the temples and went on from sunset to sunrise. Nowadays shorter versions are shown, both for tourists and to keep the traditional art alive – but it’s still a lengthy process. This is no tourist gimmick, the performers and musicians  train for 6-8 years and it is taken very seriously.

The complicated make up begins an hour before the performance. Natural dyes from rocks make the colours and the white is made from rice flour into which cardboard pieces are stuck to make the different collars and shapes around the faces. A seed from a flower is placed under the lower eye lid to dye the eyes red.

Beginning the make up

On goes the lip stick

Now they are all at it

With a little help from my friend

While this was going on the master-of ceremonies lighted lamps and decorated the front of the stage and the floor of the auditorium with patterns made from rice flour.

Floor patterns

We then had a demonstration is which one of the performers showed how facial expressions and eye movements are used to show emotions and body movements and hand gestures to portray specific words and phrases.

Demonstration of facial expressions

The main performance began. The story was about a prince who is chosen to kill an evil monster who has been terrifying a village. There are 3 characters – Prince Bhima(with green face); the monster Baka (with red/black face) and  a villager. The dress of the two main characters was almost identical with elaborate head dress and huge hooped skirt with pompoms attached – all very camp.

The prince tells the villager he will fight the monster

The murderous forest-dwelling demon

The prince and the demon prepare for battle

The drummers and singer got very excited as the story reached its climax with the fight to the death between the prince and the monster. In case you are worries about the outcome, you will be pleased to know that the monster is defeated and killed by the prince and the village is saved.

The demon is slayed - hurrah!