the term is equally as crucial as the face area to get a Koodiyattam artiste. Since the vidooshaka at a Koodiyattam drama as the narrator of all Prabandhakoothu, a sub-genre of Koodiyattam, the artiste needs become described as a master of story skills. The vidooshaka at Prabandhakoothu once enjoyed the liberty to tease and criticise the king. Is that powerful word losing its advantage?

Prabandhakoothu could be your solo male-only talent which instills epic tales, even while interspersing them together with modern scenarios and frees up them with humor and humor. Sanskrit slokas have been parsed and also their plausible significance explained in Malayalam in fantastic detail, so references are made to reports that were similar and sometimes perhaps modern literary texts. As an example, the popular sloka at Ramayana, ‘Raman dasaratham vidhi…’, at which Sumitra advices Lakshmana as he lays out to the woods. Although sloka has just 1-2 words, the Prabandhakoothu artiste can simply take over two weeks to describe it, unfurling different colors of significance in each word.

Plays using an intention

The debut across 900 CE of this type of vidooshaka, that talked the most frequent person’s language, brought fresh crowds into the Sanskrit theater kind of Koodiyattam. Using this evolved, within a handful centuries, Prabandhakoothu, also referred to as Chakyarkoothu, as this had been conducted exclusively by members of this Chakyar community before a few years past.

And texts called prabandhas have been composed solely for Prabandhakoothu. Its function was supposed to amuse, teach, interrogate, excite to presume, and thus assist cleanse society of its ills.

Prabandhakoothu continues to be highly popular and a whole lot more popular than Koodiyattam, together with lots of temples hosting it throughout annual festivals and on particular days. However, some severe professionals and connoisseurs aren’t that pleased. They fear Prabandhakoothu has been currently losing its own gravitas and is being seen by most as an area form of the standup comicbook. In addition they believe it was paid down to two-hour storyline sessions, no matter this scholarship which the previous masters given it.

A.V. Narayanan, a Prabandhakoothu artiste, says the majority of the performances found now comprise exactly the exact same few stories. He laments that training and operation of serious works aren’t receiving the care they deserve. There’s a risk that essential facets of the story telling craft is going to be lost indefinitely because of deficiency of actors and viewers.

This endangered Narayanan, who’s also a picture editorto make use of his own videographing skills to record true Prabandhakoothu performances with veteran exponents. The release of this videorecording of Dootavakyam past year conducted with 72-year-old Ammannur Kuttan Chakyar, also a senior artiste, genius, scholar and actor known because of his serious way of the art, could be that the culmination of such efforts.

Dootavakyam, compiled by Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri, very popular for his devotional text,” Narayaneeyamthat covers the story of Krishna’s peace mission into the Kauravas. It starts with the Pandavas on the lookout for ends and peace using Krishna showing his cosmic kind or Viswaroopa. The written text contains over 4 5 slokas and lots of extended passages in prose. The 37-hour long highdefinition video of this operation was listed within 2 1 days and published last year after a few flaws.

“There are several other prabandhas that need to be preserved,” says Narayanan. Nonetheless, it’s not possible for a single individual to tackle that job. Narayanan discovers that there aren’t many takers due to their videorecording, also expects a business will assume the task.

Kuttan Chakyar says that such records are invaluable not only by the entertainment perspective, but being helpful tips for prospective students. He worries a great many additional Melpathur works, which might be milestone striking monologues from Kerala’s literary heritage, could have already come to be inaccessible. By way of instance, he says, he’s seen his professional Ammannur Madhava Chakyar work Rajasooyam, but can be sceptical if anybody now can do justice to this job.

Based on Kuttan Chakyar,” “Learning long prabandhas is a tedious affair. Apart from memorising the text, one has to think about it, practise hard, and perform it over and over again. “Prabandhakoothu is not merely the narration of a story. It is playacting, where the artiste has to create the dialogues of the various characters on the spot. That is why familiarity with the text is extremely important. And more meanings emerge the more one reflects on the poet’s words.” He’s doubtful when the newest creation of artistes are going to have some time, motivation and patience for it.

However, there’s hope nonetheless. Dr. T. K. Narayanan,” vice chancellor, Kerala Kalamandalam, said at the launching of this Dootavakyam video such endeavors undoubtedly decrease from the domain of this arts university. He also wanted the Koodiyattam department in Kalamandalam to tackle projects to digitise functions masters. There’s not any other means to conserve such customs, ” he said.

The retired writer writes about Kerala’s performing arts.