Kalamandalam Krishnakumar | Photo courtesy: Special arrangement
When Kalamandalam Krishnakumar joined Kalakshetra in Chennai as a teacher, the young Kathakali artiste had to unlearn a few things to fulfil the institute’s requirement as a part-time Bharatanatyam dancer. This experience came in handy when Krishnakumar was next posted at his alma mater in Cheruthuruthy, far from his native village in central Kerala.
“I taught Kathakali till my retirement in 2018, but on stage I sometimes found the footwork and movements of Bharatanatyam better suited to the characters I played,” he says, citing examples of Kacha’s charming bond with Devayani at his father Shukracharya’s ashram or sage Vishwamitra teaching abhinaya to the pair of Rati-Virati. Harishchandracharitam,
This is Krishnakumar’s 50th year in Kathakali. During this journey, he has constantly reinvented himself and his art. He moved from folk song Ayyappanpattu to Kathakali and from the southern school of Kathakali to the northern school.
Krishnakumar is the first full-fledged Kathakali artiste in his family | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“As a teenager I had no idea about the stylistic differences between the two streams,” says Krishnakumar. “I made the change because the only teacher of the southern style, Madavoor Vasudevan Nair, was busy with all-night shows.”
The influential guru Ramankutty Nair accepted Krishnakumar’s request and sent him to Padmanabhan Nair to learn the northern (Kalluvazhi) method. Krishnakumar also trained under Vazhenkada Vijayan and Kalamandalam Gopi. The training lasted for about a decade, after which he realised the lack of opportunities to perform.
“I started playing harmonium for a teacher. I wanted to learn this instrument because my friends told me it could help me get a job abroad.” Krishnakumar came to know about a vacancy for a Kathakali teacher at Kalakshetra. He applied and got the job, but he realised that Bharatanatyam was the mainstay of the institute. So he sought knowledge about the dance form.
Krishnakumar has played all the lead roles. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Around this time, Krishnakumar’s batchmate Kalamandalam Vijayakumar and Barbara, a makeup artist from Manchester, invited him to perform at events organised at their institute in the UK. This meant he had to take a long break from teaching. Eventually, he quit his job at Kalakshetra and moved back to Kerala.
In 1990, Kalamandalam appointed Krishnakumar to its Kathakali department, which he later headed when the institution became a deemed university. In the three decades that Krishnakumar spent there, he had a large number of disciples and performed across the state and outside the country. “I have played all the major hero and villain characters, but I do not like playing villainous red-bearded characters. I have shared the stage with exponents from both schools of Kathakali. Over the years, I have realised that the art form must adapt to contemporary sensibilities,” says Krishnakumar, who is now reviving his association with Ayyappanpattu, which he learnt from his father Achuthan Nair as a young boy. Incidentally, Achuthan had trained in Kathakali for some time 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, stroking his father’s hourglass-shaped udukku. “Sometimes, I play it for my grandchildren.”
