Kalamandalam Krishnakumar
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
When Kalamandalam Krishnakumar joined Kalakshetra in Chennai as a teacher, the young Kathakali artiste had to unlearn a few things to meet the institution’s requirement as a part-time Bharatanatyam dancer. This exposure came in handy when Krishnakumar next got posted at his alma mater in Cheruthuruthy, not far from his native village in central Kerala.
“I taught Kathakali till my retirement in 2018, but on stage I sometimes found Bharatanatyam footwork and movements suited better the characters I portrayed,” he says, citing charming Kacha’s bonding with Devayani in her father Shukracharya’s ashram or sage Vishwamitra giving lessons on abhinaya to the Rati-Virati duo in Harischandracharitam.
This is Krishnakumar’s 50th year in Kathakali. Through the journey, he has constantly reinvented himself and his art. He moved from the folksy Ayyappanpattu to Kathakali and from the southern school of Kathakali to the northern.
Krishnakumar is the first full-fledged Kathakali artiste in his family
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“As a teenager, I had no clue about the stylistic differences between the two streams,” says Krishnakumar. “I made the change because the lone teacher of the southern style, Madavoor Vasudevan Nair, used to be busy with night-long shows.”
Influential guru Ramankutty Nair accepted Krishnakumar’s request and sent him to Padmanabhan Nair to learn the northern (Kalluvazhi) methodology. Krishnakumar also trained under Vazhenkada Vijayan and Kalamandalam Gopi. The training lasted for almost a decade, after which he realised a dearth of opportunities to perform.
“I began to play the harmonium for a teacher. I wanted to learn the instrument since my friends told me it could fetch a job abroad.” Krishnakumar then came to know about the vacancy for a Kathakali tutor in Kalakshetra. He applied and landed the job only to realise that Bharatanatyam was the institution’s mainstay. So he gained know-how about the dance form’s repertoire.
Krishnakumar has performed all major roles.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
At this point of time, Krishnakumar’s batch-mate Kalamandalam Vijayakumar and make up artiste Barbara of Manchester invited him to perform at events at their institute in the U.K. This meant taking long breaks from teaching. Eventually, he quit his job in Kalakshetra and went back to Kerala.
In 1990, Kalamandalam appointed Krishnakumar to its Kathakali department, which he later went on to head, by when the institution had become a deemed university. The three decades that Krishnakumar spent there, he had a huge number of disciples and performances across the state and outside the country. “I have performed all the major hero and anti-hero characters, but I don’t quite like playing the villainous red-bearded roles. I have shared platforms with exponents of both schools of Kathakali. Over the years, I have realised the art form should adapt to contemporary sensibilities,” says Krishnakumar, who is now reviving his connect with Ayyappanpattu, which he learnt as a young boy from his father Achuthan Nair. Incidentally, Achuthan briefly trained in Kathakali when Kalamandalam was in Thiruthiparambu, near his village.
“I think I was destined to become the first full-fledged Kathakali artiste in my family,” says Krishnakumar, running his hand over the hourglass-shaped udukku of his father. “Occasionally, I play this for my grandchild.”
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