Of brawls, romance, pathos and valour: The Little Clay Cart and Kutiyattam

Hindustan Times

6 days ago

People came from as far away as Kolkata, Mysore and Kerala to watch Mrcchakatikam at Ranga Shankara, Bengaluru, early last month. In the long queue to enter the performing arts venue were not only regular theatre goers but also actors, musicians and theatre practitioners who had trained at Natanakairali. The research, training and performing arts centre at Irinjalakuda, Kerala, was founded by Kutiyattam exponent G Venu, who is the director of Mrcchakatikam. Live music from the kurumkuzhal and mizhavu, instruments characteristic of Kutiyattam, filled the foyer with a festive air before the premiere of the trilingual play, originally written in Sanskrit in the 5th century AD by Shudraka. Charudatta played by Sooraj Nambiar and Vasanthasena played by Kapila Venu in G Venu's staging of Mrcchakatikam. (Courtesy Natanakairali Archives)
G Venu, Kutiyattam doyen and founder of Natanakairali in Kerala. (Courtesy Natanakairali Archives)
Mrcchakatikam (A Little Clay Cart) is centred around Vasanthasena, a ganika or courtesan. Though the play begins with her being chased by an uncouth but powerful suitor and seeking refuge in the house of Charudatta, she goes on to save Charudatta, his son and others. Throughout, Vasanthasena follows her desires without internal or external opposition and enters a relationship with a man she finds attractive. Wealthy and generous, she is also unafraid and gives a gambler refuge, bails him out when he's in peril, and inspires him to become a Buddhist. Vasanthasena, played by G Venu's daughter Kapila Venu, thinks on her feet and acts from her heart.
Kutiyattam is an ancient, classical theatre form usually performed with minimal dialogues. Yet, it lends itself perfectly to Mrcchakatikam. The cast of characters includes thieves, gamblers and courtesans who speak in Sanskrit, Malayalam and Kannada, with accompanying subtitles that wonderfully cut through all language barriers, adding an extra layer of enjoyment to a play known for its humour.
Gambling scenes, brawls, romance, pathos and valour (like in the scene where Karnapooraka subdues a rampaging elephant) were spectacularly showcased. The grand costumes and elaborate makeup added layers to the visual storytelling. Especially memorable was the scene depicting a thief making a hole in the wall to enter Charudutta's house. When the thief goes through, he reaches out for his staff, still on the other side, and slickly manoeuvres it through 'the hole' that so vividly exists only in the collective imagination of the actor and the audience.
The action-packed story is narrated in true Kutiyattam style by the actors' bodies perfectly synchronised with the continuously altering soundscape of the mizhavu – a percussion instrument almost as endangered as Kutiyattam. It seemed like invisible strings connected the instrument to the actors, almost like a puppeteer and his puppets. Except that here, both sides played both roles equally as they expressed stealth, coyness, excitement, anger, sadness, bees buzzing and footsteps approaching.
Kapila Venu brings Vasanthasena alive with a range of nuanced expressions (Courtesy Natanakairali Archives)
G Venu reveals that he had been thinking of staging Mrcchakatikam for quite a while. 'Around 2002, when Habib Tanvir happened to see our work, Sakuntalam, he was highly impressed and asked me to consider making Mrcchakatikam,' he says. Even earlier, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, one of post-independent India's premier patrons of arts and crafts and a key player in the creation of Natanakairali, had pointed him towards the play. 'I was very close to her and she is responsible for the institution created in the Ammannur tradition,' he says recalling a chance meeting with her at Bombay airport in 1980. It was a 'a turning point' in his life and led him to convince his mentor Guru Ammannur Madhava Chakyar to teach Kuttiyatam to those who did not belong to the Chakyar community, traditional performers of the form. G Venu, who was originally a Kathakali performer and teacher, then added a thatched kalari beside his rented home and began training in the form. It's been a long journey and he states that he finally managed to bring his plans to fruition because of the support of Gayathri Krishna of the Bhoomija Trust, Arundhati Nag of Ranga Shankara and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies.
'Kutiyattam is a most neglected art form. Nobody gives any financial aid. The situation is very bad,' he says adding that the 21-member ensemble performing the play includes actors from other Kutiyattam troupes as well. 'We are a small community and know each other. The actors are all well trained. Many have been trained by my teacher, Guru Ammannur Madhava Chakyar,' he says. Of course, the 10-act play was difficult to condense. 'We selected portions and started working. We were thrilled that everything in the original play goes so well with Kutiyattam acting techniques,' he says.
Having worked as a performer, practitioner, researcher, publisher, writer, arts curator and theatre facilitator for more than six of the eight decades of his life, G Venu continues to be struck by India's rich performing arts tradition. 'Ours is the richest theatre in the world. If you look into old records of western theatre, only 50 odd pages of Aristotle's Poetics are available. China does not have any document. Japan has only Zeami Motokiyo's treatise, Kadensho – the Secret Book of Noh Art. In India, we have 6000 verses of the Natyasastra dedicated to theatre, besides texts like Sangeetha Ratnakara. We have Siva – a god dedicated to theatre. This is the only form where women are allowed to perform. Nowhere in the world – not in Greek theatre, Shakespeare, the Beijing opera or Japanese theatre – could women perform like they could here.' He came to this understanding when he travelled the world studying different theatre forms as one of the directors of the World Theatre Project based in Sweden.
Kapila Venu, who has animated both form and character for Kutiyattam audiences, further adds that 'Kutiyattam, for centuries, was not a career that stopped women. All of us performers are now learning how to rebuild the village that it took to raise the children back in the day.' As a theatre pedagogue, practitioner and mother (her son, Aran Kapila, made his Kutiyattam debut in Mrcchakatikam), she says, 'In each phase of our lives, irrespective of gender, we have a different kind of energy that we can offer on stage.' She is happy that practitioners are now reflecting on how to 'transmit traditional forms to newer generations.'
The continuously altering soundscape of the mizhavu provides a backdrop for the narrative to unfold. (Courtesy Natanakairali Archives)
As for the instruments, mizhavu player Kalamandalam Rajeev says the 'mizhavu player is not only a mizhavu player' in Kutiyattam performances. They are 'involved in stage management and have to observe everything happening on the stage.' As rhythm is the baseline of the performance, they 'control the tempo of the play' with the actors. 'We know the script. Yet, imagination is important. We have to be one step ahead and anticipate how the actor may improvise,' he says.
Afterwards, the admiring audience streamed out still transfixed at being a part of this traditional spectacle that successfully tapped into the still dynamic spirit of an ancient work of genius.
Charumathi Supraja is a writer, poet and journalist based in Bengaluru.