“Why can’t we have Kathakali performances that speak about gender, employment, displacement...? Why shouldn’t performers of traditional arts join hands to work on new productions that are relevant and appeal to new audiences?” asks Mallika Sarabhai, Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam, a deemed university and performing arts centre.
In addition to starting gender sensitisation classes for students, Mallika wants to “broaden the scope and vision of the institution and erase caste, class and gender barriers from Kalamandalam”.
New productions in Kathakali that integrate modern theatre techniques, setting up of departments for research to study intersectional subjects such as Anthropology and Physiology of dance, and research subjects that are not confined to performative aspects of traditional art forms and lateral admissions are some of the additions and modifications that the new Chancellor hopes to implement.
Winds of change
With all the changes in the offing, she says it is exciting and challenging but “it is like walking in quicksand”.
Six months into the job and the danseuse-choreographer and art manager is raring to give Kerala Kalamandalam a new direction and relevance. Known for her path-breaking choreography that takes the vocabulary of Bharatanatyam to address contemporary issues, Mallika does not mince words when she emphasises the need for the institution to open up and look beyond its traditional catchment areas.
Speaking to MetroPlus on the sidelines of the inauguration of Kerala Arts and Crafts Village’s Kalari Academy, she says heading Kalamandalam has been a huge learning experience as she has never worked with the Government, in any capacity.
Calling herself an impatient person, she says one of the first lessons she learned was how every decision had to be vetted, gazetted, and go through processes, which make the decision-making transparent but long drawn out.
Talking to all the stakeholders involved opening her eyes to the ground realities. “One of the first things that the female students told me in a meeting was how unfair and patriarchal all the rules were. There were ‘rules’ that were being passed down as rules, which as far as the Registrar was concerned was not a rule at all. These were unwritten rules that by definition became patriarchal and upper caste in its essence. And Kerala, for all its matrilineal lineage, is hugely patriarchal. All the good health and education indicators have not changed that, which is a tragedy.”
As a beginning, Mallika has introduced self-defence for female students of Kalamandalam. In addition, “unwritten rules” such as women not being allowed to go out from the hostel or the campus after 6pm has been changed. Nevertheless, she emphasises that she is aware that Kerala Kalamandalam has girls from the age of 12 and so steps will have to be taken to protect them. “These are works in progress.”
“There are so many levels to be worked at – changing people’s attitude, change in academics, looking at the way Kathakali is taught and how much is valid today and how much was valid a hundred years ago.”
As an example, she wonders why even today students of Kalamandalam have to wake up at 4am for sadhakam. She points out that the early hour might have been valid for a time when there was no electricity and people had to go to bed by sunset. “Today, most students have mobile phones and they are up at 11 pm. So how efficient is it for them to still wake up at 4 am? What can you do at 4 am that you can’t do at 6 am?”
After discussion with the teachers, this academic year onwards, students will wake up at 6am for their practice and will attend classes after breakfast. After lunch and a short break, they will resume art classes.
“Earlier, the children would fall asleep in class after they had been up from 4 am. No one has explained to the students the necessity of having language and mathematical skills and an understanding of science.”
Theatre meets Kathakali
Mallika plans to invite theatre practitioners like Royston Abel and Abhilash Pillai to work with the performers. She adds, “I want contemporary choreographers to teach them how the body can also be used. I would like theatre directors to work with the Kathakali dancers to see what they can do with them,” she says. “For instance, I was reading about Don Quixote that was staged recently in the Kathakali format. The playwright is the dean of Kathakali in Kalamandalam. So why can’t he do it there?”
She recalls with pride and affection how her mother, Mrinalini Sarabhai, had choreographed a one-hour piece in Kathakali, Manushya, in 1949. “There were critics who were mocking Kathakali because of the costume and makeup. That’s when she came up with this. We redid it in 1996 and 2006. It is an important piece that stripped the performers of their costume and makeup but it is pure Kathakali. It talks of the cycle of life.”
Mrinalini and Chatunni Panicker had donned the main roles in Manushya. Later, Mallika played the main role too. She hopes that Kalamandalam will add it to their repertoire.
The danseuse asserts that she is not bastardising the form in any way. “If you ask me, what I do with my classical training, I can still do a margam. I have taken that (classical dance) as my language and talking of things that matter today. That is where I would like to take Kalamandalam — you can teach tradition but you are not teaching them tradition as a museum piece. You are giving people a very powerful language.”
She recalls how Darpana had worked with Bhavai, a traditional folk theatre form in Gujarat and western India and used the format to narrate new stories for a modern world. Bhavai had the writ to be able to criticise anybody.
“However, Bhavai veshas were written in the 18th Century. Nothing was written later. So Darpana (Ahmedabad-based Darpana Academy of Performing Arts) did a 10-year project in which Amma invited traditional Bhavai performers to Darpana and began to train modern theatre students in traditional Bhavai. We simultaneously invited playwrights to write contemporary plays for Bhavai. So they started writing Bhavai based on the politics of the day. That is what I would like to do in Kalamandalam.”
Mallika wants theatre practitioners to work with performers in Kalamandalam to come up with short plays that use the form to talk about today‘s world. “They could take it from village to village, talking about women empowerment, and how men can free themselves from the prison of gender where they are expected to behave and react in a certain way.”
Reaching out
From next year, the Chancellor wants to advertise admissions for Kalamandalam. She feels somebody from the Northeast might want to learn Kathakali or a student from Gujarat could learn chutti, the art of make-up for characters in Kathakali.
“We have to open up. One of the tragedies now is that Kerala boys do not want to learn Kathakali. But there might be other men who might want to learn. Why are we stopping them?
“We have to make the students aware that there are so many opportunities for them. They need not only become artistes or teachers. You can become performing artists who work with development agencies to create performances that are talking about a particular development agenda.”
A bridge course has been introduced in the institution to permit lateral admissions into the courses. Thus students who have learnt a discipline from another institution will be able to join Kalamandalam and take the bridge course to hone their skills to the standard expected in Kalamandalam.
Mallika has called on students of films to make one-minute videos on any of the 12 forms taught in Kalamandalam. “Make me one-minute videos that will make somebody in Kanpur fascinated by what they are seeing! How do I make it go viral?”
So, if all disciplines are open to all, irrespective of gender and caste, can we expect a female Thullal performer from Kalamandalam? With a twinkle in her eye, she says: “Yes, even if she is not a Malayali.”
