Kavalam Narayana Panikkar - Theatre and Sopana Sangeetham

Submitted by bhawani on Mon, 2007-03-12 19:29.

We are all familiar with 'Viswaroopadarshanam'. Well it is something very close to it that one experiences when meeting the playwright-director and poet from Kuttanad.
He draws you into the cultural roots of Kerala, traces the commonalities with other regions of the country and then tells you that it is ultimately 'Unity in Diversity'.

Recipient of this year's Padmabhushan, Kavalam's theatre is a new manne of expression and use of the proscenium.You hear the rhythms of the life of a sylvan
countryside, you see the myths being given a layered feature and with all this you learn that the present does not exist without a past.

We hear of 'fusion', 'experimental theatre' being bandied about but none o this will last unless you are strongly rooted in the past. And in that lies the success and critical acclaim that his productions receive.

If he got Mohanlal to do Karnabharam, he has also done Bhasa and Kalidasa in its original Sanskrit form, not ever seeming repetitive.

Now his nataka kalari is working on 'Otamulachi' and 'Kalurutti'. Every time we re-do it we discover new meanings so the play is never the same.

Having staged 'Madhyamavyayogam','Urubhangom'
'Charudatta','Swapnavasavadatta', 'Doothavakyam''Karnabharam''Pratima,'Shakuntalam', 'Vikramorvsiyam','Tempest', 'Trojan Women' are among the plays he has staged, but there are an equal number written and directed by the Master like 'Theyya Theyyam', 'Kalivesham', 'Avananvan Kadamba'.The craft of Kavalam is there for all to see in the G Aravindan film, 'Marattam'.

How did he move to Sopana Sangeetham? It was in those years when he was Secretary of the Kendra Sangeet Natak Akademi that Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya asked to know more about the presence of women in the perfoming arts. Thus began the search to find out more about Sopana Sangeetham which many had felt was part of the temple's kottipadi seva'. Mohinattam had relied mostly on Swati Thirunal compositions but according to Kavalam there was evidence of the match between the Keraleeya Sopana Sangeetham and the fluid movements of Mohiniattam. Thus began his journey into a new field.

Recipient of prestigious awards like Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Malayalam Playwright (1974), Sangeet Natak Academy Award for Theatre-Director(1983) and the Kalidas Samman for Theatre in 1996, Kavalam now is work towards fulfilling what he calls the last sentence by Dr Ayyapa Pannikker to him," Complete all thirteen of Bhasa's plays."
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