Artistes depicting the characters of Arjuna, drona and Ekalavya in Sadanam Akademi’s play Ekalavyan.
| Photograph Credit score: SATHEESH NAIR
Obscurity largely defines the whereabouts of Ekalavya after the mythological tribal readily obeys Drona’s demand and provides one thumb to his digital grasp. A brand new Kathakali play tracks the forest-dweller’s tragedy past his finish as an excellent archer. The three-hour manufacturing, apart from wealthy with novel choreographies and appearances, lends fullness to the Mahabharata subplot by way of thematic additions nonexistent in Vyasa’s textual content.
The epic does confer with Ekalavya amid the 18-day Kurukshetra battle. In Drona Parva, prince Arjuna learns that Ekalavya continued to lord over the jungle by overcoming the handicap with an attachment to his misplaced finger. “So I eradicated him,” says Krishna because the Pandava’s charioteer. In any case, the guru dakshina primarily sought to blunt Ekalavya’s prowess that doubtlessly threatened Arjuna’s profession.
Artistes depicting the function of Krishna and Ekalavya in Sadanam Akademi’s new play Ekalavyan.
| Photograph Credit score:
SATHEESH NAIR
Ekalavyan, the Kathakali present premiered by Sadanam Akademi, concludes with Krishna’s slaying the youth. Adorning it are recent bits of creativeness from the play’s director Ok. Harikumar, head of the Kerala establishment at Pathiripala close to Palakkad. One, as a substitute of striving to develop into one with us all, Ekalavya needed to be numero uno, Krishna tells the teen. But, untimely dying is a harsh penalty; so he predicts Ekalavya would in his subsequent start shoot (again) an arrow that can kill the Vishnu-incarnate.
The truth is halfway by way of their duel, Krishna provides Ekalavya the choice to stop. Fights are absurd with out enmity, he says, including felicity with a weapon is not any excuse to tackle folks. Krishna even factors out that each ‘rivals’ listed below are dark-skinned. On stage, although, the lord retains his classical inexperienced visage, whereas Ekalavya’s face is innovatively bluish. The central character (by Kalamandalam Manoj) has a headgear suggestive of his teenage, whereas borrowing components from the woodsman’s costume in Kathakali. The rose petal-like marks beneath every eye seemed to be impressed by the villainous Shankhuchuda in that temple artwork of Krishnanattam.
A sequence from Sadanam Akademi’s play Ekalavyan.
| Photograph Credit score:
SATHEESH NAIR
Harikumar’s eclecticism even brings in sensibilities of Koodiyattam. The best way Drona (Kottakkal Nandakumaran) stands behind Arjuna (Sadanam Mohanan) and screens his weapon observe at first bears an uncanny resemblance with jester Vidooshaka guiding his pleasant protagonist within the historic Sanskrit theatre. True, humour is absent in Ekalavyan, so is shringara — there’s no scope for love. It’s all males; even the captivator Krishna (Kalamandalam Praveen) is simply valorous. One-upmanship is the leitmotif. The plot warms up proper from the opening scene, with the entry of Ekalavya inside minutes after the curtain elements. His request to develop into Drona’s disciple invitations an equally direct response: no. Worse, Arjuna snubs the newcomer with casteist remarks. Damage, Ekalavya scoops a handful of soil from the spot and, into the second scene, is seen worshipping Drona’s idol made out of it. A hunter canine (in semi-realistic costume) distracts him, solely to be subdued by a singular bowing approach which Drona thought he taught Arjuna alone. The following consternation brings Drona and Arjuna to Ekalavya, who loses his thumb. Nonetheless valiant, he proposes a duel with Arjuna, prompting Drona to direct Ekalavya to Krishna for a ‘semifinal’.
Usually, the pure-dance punctuations in songs incorporate footwork from different kalasams. Harikumar, into his twenty first story-play, hasn’t waned in concepts or their execution. Assisted on the vocals by Jyothish Babu, the opposite accompanists had been Sadanam Ramakrishnan, Jithin (chenda), Devadas and Jayaraj (maddalam). Main a five-member crew within the greenroom was Kalamandalam Balan.