The late night arrived in the foregrounds of the temple courtyards of Kerala in South India, in one of the past festival days in a February, with the staging of the epic story that has been retold in the tribal tradition of the eastern mountains. There came the king of Kauravas ( a dynasty of the Vedic India) on the stage of the traditional dance drama performance of Kathakali ( the classical Indian theater of Kerala).
It was the entry of the king on the stage which had been put into the style of coming on a chariot.This entry highlights the royal hood of the character with the accompaniment of rigorous percussion and haloing decorations on each side of the character.This typical entry of this type characters just before the narration of a story is called ,'Thiranottam' which means ' a look above the front curtain raised against the audience'.
I shot the moments of this 'look above.' of the royal character in my Nikon FM10 Manual SLR around ten years back in roll films..!
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| The entry of a royal character onto the stage |
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| The narration begins after the 'entry' of the main character depicting the royal hood |
The late night sky of that February just above the temple courtyard was full of stars that glittered as if in a dream of the past that descended upon the earth in the form of colorfulness and choreographic harmony of a performance of classicism..!
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| The royal hood on its way of expressions |
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ReplyDeleteIt is your 'thiranottam'.. we come on our chariot on the stage of present to play and do our 'thiranottam', and stars,moon, sky, night, day, rains, trees, .... provide back ground music.. and we perform using navrasas, and mudras..
ReplyDeletenice, Balu, now I am on the stage like the stars in the midnight sky..!
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