A Tribute to the Octogenarian Maestro

A Tribute to the Octogenarian Maestro
The Legend of Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair

Time is running too fast. I was there in Karalmanna, where the lovers of Kathakali celebrated his 70th (Sapthati) birthday in a big way. It was one of the great moments in my Palakkadan life and still I can recollect the bright colours of that evening. After 14 years, the art lovers of Kerala are celebrating his 84th (Satabhishekam) birthday at the same venue. I have left Palakkad and Kerala in 1995, but the colourful memories of those days takes me back to that place.

I like Kathakali very much. May be, it is just because of my bringing up provided me to have a close look at this classical art form. Many of my relatives were keen followers of Kathakali and they closely follow the temple festival calendars to catch up with the best performances. I was not that keen or a devoted follower but was able to follow this great art form and understand some of the Mudras. The stories were by-heart from the childhood and it helped me to follow the performance in a better way.

While having a short stint in IRTC –Mundoor, we, my colleague Hari Kishore and I came to know about Karalmanna programme from my cousin brother Kuttan Chettan, who was running a studio in Olavakkode. He and his brother Jayan were devoted followers of Kathakali and had close friendship with many well known artists. We took bus to Cherpulasery and then to Karalmanna. Reached there at around 8-30pm and the organising committee has arranged dinner for everyone who comes there for the programme. We saw TV crews running around to get hold of the best artists in Kathakali who were present there. At that time, Malayalam had only three TV channels. I saw Shri Ramankutty Nair was having his dinner with few of his close friends and many big names in the field of Kathakali were present there to pay their tributes and best wishes to the great guru.

Before reaching there in Karalmanna, we got to know that there will be two Kathakali performances by the best artists of the time. We saw Kalamandalam Gopi is preparing in the green room, great singer Kalamandalam Haridas is talking to some other artist and the first performance was ‘Nalacharitam 4th day’. For me, it was my first time to see Kalamandalam Gopi as Nalan, which is considered as his best appearance. In the second story, Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair will appear as Hanuman in ‘Toranayudham’, which is considered as one of his best appearance. Another great feeling of the day was the outstanding performance of one Kathakali singer –Kalamandalam Gangadharan, a master who followed the traditional way of kathakali sangeetam developed by Kalamandalam Unnikrishna Kurup. It was very much different from the sweetness of Kalamandalam Haridas and Kalamandalam Hyder Ali. His voice has everything, sweetness, strength to evoke the real expressions of the characters appearing in the stage, and strong and powerful voice. His performance was amazing. But the take of the day was the performance of Shri Ramankutty Nair. His appearance as Hanuman in Toranayudham with his famous ‘Ashtakalasam’ elevated the audience to a different world altogether.

Shri Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair started his Kathakali life much before the formation of Kerala Kalamandalam, the institute started by Mahakavi Vallathol Narayana Menon and Mukunda Raja. Along with his guru shri Pattikamthodi Ravunni Menon, he moved in to Kalamandalam. Shri Ravunni Menon was the principal teacher for Kathakali in the institute and Ramankutty Nair joined as his student. Later he joined there as the faculty and retired as the principal of Kalamandalam. He enjoyed nearly 70 active years of professional life in the field of Kathakali and travelled across the country and abroad to popularise this art form. After retirement from Kalamandalam, he wrote his autobiography ‘Tiranottam’ which was serialised in Mathrubhumi weekly. He also participated in the programmes organised by Spic-Macy, an organisation working for popularising classical and traditional art forms of India. I remember his visit to Delhi in 1995 or 96. He did a demonstration performance for the student crowd gathered from IIT Delhi and JNU. I was fortunate to see his special performance he did in Delhi for the International Kathakali Centre in Delhi. There, he appeared as the Mahabharata character Duryodhana, in which he performed ‘Ekalochanam’, a special way expressing two opposite ‘rasas’ on his face simultaneously.

The scholarship and artistic contributions of Ramankutty Nair were well recognised by the concerned authorities. He was honoured with Padmabushan in 2007 and Kendra Sangeeta Nataka Academy Award in 1975 and Kendra Sangeeta Nataka Academy Ratna in 2004. Shri Ramankutty Nair was the first recipient of Emeritus Fellowship from HRD in 1999 and first Kathakali artist to receive Kathakali Puraskar from Government of Kerala in 2000. Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Academy honoured him in 1987 and he received Sri Guruvayoorappan Puraskar in 2004. He received Kalidasa Samman from the Madhya Pradesh government in 1994 and Kalaratnam from Bombay in 2003.

After fourteen years, today i saw the news about his Sathabhishekam –the 84th birthday celebration. A brochure ‘Tiranottam’ is already released in connection with the 84th birthday celebrations of Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair. Tiranottam organising committee is planning to organise a grand programme in Cherpulasery on 15 and 16 May to celebrate his 84th birthday, which includes different art performances by the masters in their respective fields. Today, in TV news, Shri Ramankutty Nair declared that he would like to appear in the stage as Dharmaputhrar, the legendary character of Mahabharata.

Time is running too fast and it is difficult to cope up with its pace. After 14 years of his 70th birthday celebrations in Karalmanna, i realise, there are few valuable faces are missing out here. Major lose occurred in the field of Kathakali singers. The best prodigies produced by Kalamandalam, Sankaran Embranthiri, Haridas and Hyder Ali, are not in this world to pay tribute to one of their great guru. With all respect, we pay our tribute and best wishes for the Sathabhishekam of Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair. Let the almighty provide better physique and more years to this octogenarian maestro.