Kathakali

Kathakali can be described as a ballet or an operatic form of art. The literary forms employed here, are the Manipravalam poetry and the song mould. Kathakali literature is full of classical and ornate descriptions. The actors are elaborately made up, with red, green, yellow or black visages.

The Kathakali performances had the patronage of the wealthy kings and the Namboodiris who spent their leisure time in watching and enjoying the performances.

Kottarakkara's Raamanaattam thus, brought forth a new era in the field of literature as well as performing arts. In the end of the Seventeenth century, the Raja of Kottayam in Malabar, wrote poems to be enacted in a Kathakali performance. The themes of his works were from the epic Mahabharata. A landmark in the history of Kathakali literature was Unnaayi Varier's Nalacharitam written during the mid eighteenth century. The diction of Varier was such, that the poetic excellence transcended the limitations of a dance-drama, to a wider milieu. Varier's romantic and tender love story of Nala and Damayanti is replete with expressions of various emotions. The characters, both major and minor are blazingly alive. The blend of music and poetry is effected wonderfully.

The ruler of Travancore, Karthika Tirunal, during the latter half of the eighteenth century, wrote six Kathakali plays. His nephew Aswati Tirunal wrote four plays. Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, Irayimman Thampi wrote three plays, which were known for their exquisitive musical quality. Rajaraja Varma of Kilimanoor, is known for his work Raavana Vijayam which has Ravana as its hero.

At present many international themes have appeared as Kathakali plays. Buddacharitam written by N.V. Krishna Varier is one among them. Biblical tales, Persian legends, stories of Tagore and Shakespeare have been improvised into kathakali tales, making the art form more universal.

Thullal

Kunchan Nambiar, the exponent of the Thullal form of art, was born around 1705 in Central Kerala. Legend says that Nambiar who used to accompany the Chakiar in Koothu performances, was scorned by the latter when he dogged off during a performance. Nambiar left the performance and created the Thullal play, overnight.

Nambiar's Thullal was not modeled on then highly influenced Kathakali. But it was definitely away from it in every manner, because it catered to the lower rungs of society. The Thullals of Nambiar were of three types, namely, the fast type called oottan Thullal, the medium type called Seethankan Thullal and the slow type called the Parayan Thullal.

The Thullal has a narrative form in verse, very much like the Kathakali. But while Kathakali has many actors on the stage, Thullal has only one actor. Unlike in Kathakali, the actor in Thullal sings the songs also. The face-painting and costumes are picturesque and attractive. Narration and dancing go side by side.

Regarding the form of poetry employed, it was overwhelmingly caricatural. Humour formed the essence of Nambiar's works. Nambiar, it occurs to us, is gleeful when he portrays scenes of weddings, feasts and battles going into the details of human frailty, stupidity and greed.

Nambiar's works were essentially social criticisms, where we see in him the picture of a sarcastic observer. His themes were essentially puranics with the characters symbolizing the contemporary stock.

Thullals continued to be produced after Nambiar's time too, but nothing excelled Nambiar's works of cynical humour. In the 19th century, Poonthottam (Junior) and Venmani (Junior) tried to re-establish the lost humour of this unique stream of poetry. At present, Thullal, as a dance - drama has achieved a lot of popularity and ordinary tales are converted into Thullal forms for stage performances. But their merit as literary works is very inferior.