Kalamandalam Krishnakumar
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association
When Kalamandalam Krishnakumar joined Kalakshetra in Chennai as a instructor, the younger Kathakali artiste needed to unlearn a couple of issues to fulfill the establishment’s requirement as a part-time Bharatanatyam dancer. This publicity got here in useful when Krishnakumar subsequent obtained posted at his alma mater in Cheruthuruthy, not removed from his native village in central Kerala.
“I taught Kathakali until my retirement in 2018, however on stage I typically discovered Bharatanatyam footwork and actions suited higher the characters I portrayed,” he says, citing charming Kacha’s bonding with Devayani in her father Shukracharya’s ashram or sage Vishwamitra giving classes on abhinaya to the Rati-Virati duo in Harischandracharitam.
That is Krishnakumar’s fiftieth yr in Kathakali. By way of the journey, he has continuously reinvented himself and his artwork. He moved from the folksy Ayyappanpattu to Kathakali and from the southern faculty of Kathakali to the northern.
Krishnakumar is the primary full-fledged Kathakali artiste in his household
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
“As a young person, I had no clue concerning the stylistic variations between the 2 streams,” says Krishnakumar. “I made the change as a result of the lone instructor of the southern model, Madavoor Vasudevan Nair, was once busy with night-long reveals.”
Influential guru Ramankutty Nair accepted Krishnakumar’s request and despatched him to Padmanabhan Nair to be taught the northern (Kalluvazhi) methodology. Krishnakumar additionally educated underneath Vazhenkada Vijayan and Kalamandalam Gopi. The coaching lasted for nearly a decade, after which he realised a dearth of alternatives to carry out.
“I started to play the harmonium for a instructor. I wished to be taught the instrument since my buddies advised me it may fetch a job overseas.” Krishnakumar then got here to know concerning the emptiness for a Kathakali tutor in Kalakshetra. He utilized and landed the job solely to understand that Bharatanatyam was the establishment’s mainstay. So he gained know-how concerning the dance kind’s repertoire.
Krishnakumar has carried out all main roles.
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
At this level of time, Krishnakumar’s batch-mate Kalamandalam Vijayakumar and make up artiste Barbara of Manchester invited him to carry out at occasions at their institute within the U.Ok. This meant taking lengthy breaks from instructing. Ultimately, he stop his job in Kalakshetra and went again to Kerala.
In 1990, Kalamandalam appointed Krishnakumar to its Kathakali division, which he later went on to go, by when the establishment had develop into a deemed college. The three a long time that Krishnakumar spent there, he had an enormous variety of disciples and performances throughout the state and outdoors the nation. “I’ve carried out all the foremost hero and anti-hero characters, however I don’t fairly like enjoying the villainous red-bearded roles. I’ve shared platforms with exponents of each colleges of Kathakali. Over time, I’ve realised the artwork kind ought to adapt to modern sensibilities,” says Krishnakumar, who’s now reviving his join with Ayyappanpattu, which he learnt as a younger boy from his father Achuthan Nair. By the way, Achuthan briefly educated in Kathakali when Kalamandalam was in Thiruthiparambu, close to his village.
“I feel I used to be destined to develop into the primary full-fledged Kathakali artiste in my household,” says Krishnakumar, working his hand over the hourglass-shaped udukku of his father. “Often, I play this for my grandchild.”
