kathakali performance
Literally meaning "Story Play", Kathakali (Katha-story, Kali-Play). Kathakali is around 300 years old. Today, only 30 plays out of the original 100 plays are being played. Most of the plays explicate the Hindu epics - Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas. Kerala owes its transnational fame to this classical dance form, which combines facets of ballet, opera, masque and the pantomime. Kathakali is usually presented in the Temple precincts after dusk. Singers vocalize the script while the players act out the play with their gestures (mudras and mughabhinaya). Kathakali is heralded by the Kelikottu (the drums) in accompaniment of the Chengila (the gong). The riches of a happy blending of colour, expressions, music, drama and dance are unparalleled in any other art form. Kathakali performers require hours of preparation. Kathakali Make-up: Costume is elaborate with the face painted up. Great importance is laid on the Vesham (make-up), which are of five types - Pacha, Kathi, Thadi, Kari and Minukku. Each Vesham denotes the type of role. The pomp and magnificence of Kathakali is partly due to its Costume part of which includes the kireetam (headgear), the kanchukam (the over sized jackets), and a long skirt worn over a thick padding of cushions. The identity of the actor is completely mutilated to create a super human being of larger-than-life proportion. In earlier days, Kathakali was confined only to the festival stages in temples. The late Mahakavi (great poet) Vallathol Narayana Menon took special interest in the art, brought it out of the temples, exploited its antiquity and, by unstinted efforts, swept the opera stages all over the world. It is acclaimed by the connoisseurs of art world as 'a total art form of immense sophistication and power'. The stories for attakatha (revise text for a Kathakali price) are selected from epics and mythologies and are written in a highly samskritised verse form in Malayalam. It had it's origin in the courts of the kings of Keral
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Keywords: art, colourful, dance, drama, dramatic, emotional, ethnic, expression, form, india, kadhakali, kadhakaly, kathakali, kathakaly, kerala, performing, south, southern, traditional
