kathakali artiste mathur govindan kutti
Sitting cross legged in front of a hand mirror he painted his face in pale beige, outlined eyes in black, over emphasized eye brows with a graceful curve and gave lovely shape in red to his lips. He was carefully drawing three white horizontal lines on his forehead. He kept aside the mirror, smiled gracefully. He was getting ready to perform the role of kuchela in kuchela vritham. Meet Mathur Govindan Kutti who was selected for the Kendra Sangeeta Nataka Academy Award-2005. In an interview he shares his experiences and explains the challenging sthree veshams.
‘I belong to the Mathur family, known for the age old tradition. We have our own kalari and I started learning Kathakli at the age of four. Nedumudi Kuttappa Panicker, Kurichi Kunjan Panicker, were my tutors. I trained under Ambalapuzha Sekhar and Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair in the vadakkan chitta and sthree veshams respectively. I had the fortune to perform with Guru kunjukuruppu, Vazhenkada Kunju Nair, Guru Chengannur, Kurichi Kunchan Panicker, Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair and Gopi, and Chennithala Chellappan Pillai. I have been performing the roles of Damayanthi, Lalitha, Urvasi, Mohini Seeta, Devayani, Panchali, and Kunthi for the past 45 years. Besides Sthree veshams I do portray the roles of Krishana, Brahma, Sundara brahmanan, hamsam and kuchelan” said Mathur Govindan Kutti.
Govindankutti joined the Kudamaloor Kalakendram as a teacher and became its principal. He is wedded to Rajeswari the daughter of Kudamaloor who is also a trained Kathakali artiste.
What are the challenging factors an artiste face while performing female characters and what are its limitations?
Portraying female characters [by a man] is not that easy. One has to imbibe the feminine gestures and body languages. Feminine raudram and sringaram are the two bhavas which are difficult to sustain for long. The minute movements if handled improperly spoil the show. There are limitations too. You have to underplay if it is duet scene. Elakiyattom is the only sequence where you can display your talent- explained the artiste.
“Mohini is tricky. Devayani is lovelorn, Lalitha is tough. Lalitha in Kirmera vadam, in Baka vadam and in Narakasura vadam are entirely different. The most challenging among the female characters is Kunthi in Karnasapadam. She drowns her new born child fearing bad reputation. When she meets him later, she is unable to accept him as her son, and maintained the secrecy as long as she could and suffers in silence the pangs of separation. Once it so happened that after the show of Karnasapadam I rushed to the green room and wept for long. I was so involved that I could not control myself” said the artiste.
According to him a kathakali artiste should be a voracious reader. He should see more shows and must keep the mind open. Mathur Govindan Kutti is currently involved in staging female characters as viewed in the puranas and giving touches of self interpretation. He has performed in European countries and is the recipient of many awards and accolades.
