kathakali artiste margi balu

[padmanabha]

For any Kathakali artiste Kottayathu Thampuran’s attakkatha’s are really a challenge. If the artiste could perform all the four stories of the Thampuran he can handle any role. The artiste thinks twice while accepting the role from any of these stories. The artiste can perform purely based on the text and no improvisation can be made except in the scenes of Yuddham. That speaks of the perfection of the author, in composing the attakatha.

Hence, different schools of Kathakali often conduct shows based on the attakathas of Kottayathu Thampuran. The concluding session of Kalakeya vadham one among the four works of the Thampuran was staged at Margi
Yesterday the story concluded with Arjuna vilapam. Distressed Arjuna was consoled by Indra, He says that the curse of Urvasi(that Arjuna would become a eunuch)
In fact is a blessing in disguise, as they have to spend one year of life incognito. Indra instructs him the use of divine weapons. He also requests him to slain Kalkeya, the demon who lives under the sea. What follows is the yuddham. Arjuna disables all the weapons of Kalakeya and finally slays him.
Kalamandalam Balasubramaniam essayed the role of Arjuna. “I have performed the role of Arjuna many times. I love to portray the characters of Dharmaputrar of Kiemeera vadham , Karnan and Arjunan. I prefer karuna and veera rasas” said Balasubramaniama a native of Vellinezhi a small village in Palakkad, popular for Kathakali. He portrays pachcha and kathi veshams.

“At Vellinezhi we had plenty of opportunities to see the Kathakali that is how I got interested in this. My first teacher was Kalamandalam Gopalakrishnan. When I joined, Kerala Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharadi trained me. It was a different experience as I was the only student to learn vesham in my batch,” says Balu, who won all the five awards including a gold medal for over all performance. “As per the advice of Narayana kurup I joined Margi. It was a turning point in my life. Here, I had the opportunity to portray all the veshams minor and major veshams. I could perfect my performance under the guidance of Enchakkadu Ramachandran a great Kathakali master at Margi”


Unlike in Vellinezhi we are always in demand. Vellinezhi has plenty of performers hence the chance for the artiste will be less. I have performed for Drisya vedhi, Pothancode kathakali club and kazhakkoottam Kathakali kaliyogam.