Usha Nangiar
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association
A younger girl turns right into a stone after her husband curses her as a result of she was seen making love to a different man, who had sneaked into her home disguised as her husband. The girl lies within the forest as a stone ready to be redeemed from the curse. Most of us know this much-familiar story of Ahalya and sage Gautama. However senior Koodiyattam artiste Usha Nangiar has include a singular interpretation of this mythological story.
In accordance with Usha, “When Gautama curses her, he says, Ahalya will undergo for 4 seasons alone and hungry. It means she isn’t only a stone however a lady caught in a single.”
Usha has created the opposite Panchakanyas — Draupadi, Sita, Mandodari and Tara — with the identical sensitivity. She wrote recent attaprakarams (appearing handbook) adhering to Koodiyattam conventions for these characters. On the Panchakanya Koodiyattam Mahotsavam, to be held until June 18, Usha, together with younger exponents Kapila Venu and Aparna Nangiar, will current her interpretations.
Kapila Venu
| Photograph Credit score:
The Hindu Archives
A dearth of sturdy feminine characters in Nangiarkoothu (the solo girl efficiency type of Koodiyattam) led Usha to reimagine these 5 heroines. She would see her male counterparts carry out advanced characters, and yearned to play layered roles that demanded the actor to have interaction in sookshmabhinaya (refined appearing). Within the Eighties, when Usha was studying, ladies performers had been seen as mere storytellers in Nangiarkoothu. However when one seems on the historical past of the artwork kind, you discover sturdy ladies characters. “King Kulasekhara Varman, who was a patron of Koodiyattam, married a Nangiar artiste. Their patronisation ensured a variety of feminine roles. With time, this theatre custom misplaced these roles and their performers,” says Usha.
Coaching underneath Ammannur Madhava Chakyar
Usha’s coaching underneath the legendary Ammannur Madhava Chakyar within the Nineteen Nineties helped her discover the shape. For seven years, she stayed on the gurukulam. “He inspired me to ask questions and be imaginative. Although a hardcore traditionalist, his modern strategy formed by aesthetic sensibilities. He adhered to the textual content, but in addition made new discoveries in it. Additionally the respect he accorded to ladies characters was uncommon. In Ammannur asan’s performances, Sita or Tara can be handled with the identical dignity as vital male characters.”
Aparna Nangiar
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Usha factors out that when reimagining characters, one should know the character’s thoughts inside out and the a number of dimensions and meanings of a scene.
Speaking in regards to the Panchakanya performances, the senior artiste stresses that it stays inside the guidelines of Koodiyattam. “After I first showcased it, audiences felt that modern choreographies have to be like this. We use the shape as a medium to inform the pains of those characters. By way of such makes an attempt, we can also provide you with improvements. That’s how Koodiyattam as an artwork kind can develop,” says Usha.
The Panchakanya Koodiyattam Mahotsavam, led by Usha Nangiar, can be held until June 18 (6 p.m.) at Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, Thrissur.
