Looking Back....

The lazy chair had been too lazy of late.But it had been Naradaa who was busy and lazy.

Busy and lazy? How?

Naradaa had been physically travelling a lot and had not been sitting in the chair. But after reaching back, Naradaa had been lazy – lazier than the chair!

Suddenly something woke me up and made me to look back….

The news that Kathakali Aasaan Sri Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair is no more has jolted me back from my sleep….

My childhood was filled with memories of Kathakali. Having grown up in a village near an epicenter of Kathakali and being able to witness dozens performances every year in nearby villages, I had the good fortune to watch almost all the stalwarts of the time.

Many of them by now, have already left this world for their heavenly abode. Yesterday one more of the great performers, probably one of the very few from that era, Sri Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair passed away, leaving a big void in the Kathakali world.

A performer par excellence, technically perfect, Aasaan was always living the character on the stage. Hanuman in Kalyanasougandhikam, in Thoranayudham and in Lavanasuravadham, Parasuraman in Seethaswayamvaram, Arjunan in Kalakeyavadham, Ravanan in Balivijayam, Rambhapravesam, Keechakan in Keecakavadham and Duryodhanan Duryodhanavadham are some of the characters enacted by Aasaan etched in memory. Every performance would be in the strict framework of Kathakali, but there would always be something beyond the technical excellence which would touch your heart.

Later in life, wherever I was living, if there is a Kathakali performance in the city, I would be there and we had met in different places like Mumbai, Delhi etc. Last I met him in Dehradun was some two and half years back when he had come for a spic macay performance. When I met him with a greeting after the performance, he asked me, ‘how do you suddenly surface at the most unexpected places where there is Kathakali?’

I may still surface at different places where there is a Kathakali performance, but I am definitely going to miss Aasaan….