Kathakali - A dance of emotion and colour [India 2022]

Katha (story) kali (play) is an iconic traditional dance of Kerala. Void of dialogues, the story is conveyed through expressions, mudras (gestures), and music. I visited an authentic school in Kochi to witness their performance.

The drummer, actor and singer each needs to learn at least for six years, while makeup artists take 4 years to master this art.

First, they apply intricate make-up for over an hour. Only natural colours are used. Yellow, and red stones are crushed and mixed in coconut oil to prepare the makeup. Traditionally, only men take part in the performance, playing the roles of both male and female characters. The good-guy character gets green makeup, while the female characters and villains get yellow and red respectively.

After the elaborate makeup, they perform a small demonstration. Here, they showed how “she asks him to leave” is shown in different levels of emotions, from pleading to angry “get the hell out of here”.

After the demo, the main play starts. They gave the new audience a synopsis of the play. A demon princess (yellow) sneaks into heaven to abduct some apsaras (beautiful dancers) for her demon dad. On her way out, she finds the prince of heaven (the green guy), the son of Indra (king of heaven). She falls in love with him, changes her form into a gorgeous girl, and tries to convince him to come with her. He is inclined at first, but then turns against the idea and sees her true form. He gets angry and slashes her limbs and breast off with his sword.

I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy it much. But to my surprise, I found it quite mesmerizing. It is a must-see in ‘Kerala Kathakali Center’ if you ever visit Kochin.