Art through Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s eyes
The celebrated filmmaker says the audience watching his films on dance should feel that they are watching a performance on stage
Films can play a significant role in understanding a dance tradition. Every dancer (or perhaps the better ones) is a living archive. They are custodians and repositories of a certain training, legacy, aesthetics and performance tradition. This came through clearly at the recently held festival of films on Indian classical and contemporary dance titled ‘Punaravalokan’ (looking back) held at Mahagami Gurukul in Aurangabad.
Think about Satyajit Ray’s Bala (1976) for instance, which isn’t a great film so to speak but nevertheless documents an important moment in Indian dance history. All the admirers of Kelucharan Mohapatra eventually turn to Kumar Shahani’s Bhavantarana (1991) to be captivated by the maestro’s matchless grace. Film therefore is a museum too. This observation was further corroborated by noted filmmaker and Dadasaheb Phalke award winner, Adoor Gopalakrishnan who was the chief guest at Punaravalokan and also participated in a conversation with the audience after the screening of two of his films at the festival, Kalamandalam Gopi (1999) and Dance of the Enchantress (2007).
Kalamandalam Gopi features legendary Kathakali maestro, Gopi, who was trained at the Kerala Kalamandalam. The film documents all the elements of Kathakali including make-up, costume, music and vividly portrays the training process an aspirant has to undergo. In a much later film, Dance of the Enchantress , Adoor showcases the evolution of Mohiniyattom through parallel stories of a teacher and her pupil. Both films also include some captivating performance footage shot at various locations across Kerala. These films not only serve as an exposition for the uninitiated but also play a major role in archiving dance heritage and some of its foremost practitioners.
In the conversation that followed the film screening, Adoor revealed his affinity for Kathakali. He said, “I started watching Kathakali from my mother’s lap. As a child, I used to be interested in the make-up of the artistes because each type denoted a specific character. Besides, there was drumming and singing. I gradually began to appreciate the importance of lyrics. My mother would explain the stories before the performance because you will not understand the recital without knowing the story.”
However, in his youth, Adoor was drawn to modern theatre. He rediscovered Kathakali much later. He informs, “There was a long gap in between. I slowly went back to follow Kathakali. The first such documentary I made was on a famous guru, Chenganoor Raman Pillai. He was almost 92 when I shot the film. Years later, I made this film on Gopi which captures him at his peak. I also made another film on Guru Ramankutty Nair who was Gopi’s guru. In this process, I realised why Kathakali ought to have been discovered in Kerala and not any other place.
Film on Krishnanattam
Adoor Gopalakrishnan also made a film on Krishnanattam, the precursor to Kathakali. He explains, “Both Krishnanattam and Kathakali have their origins in Koodiyattam which is being performed for the past 2000 years. It is the oldest living theatre in the world. You can sit anywhere in a Koothambalam (temple theatre) and hear the performers during a Koodiyattam performance. Kathakali is more accessible than Koodiyattam. There are a few in Kerala who have seen the full act of a play in Koodiyattam which usually takes between 15-45 days to perform. It survived because it was confined to the Chakyar community in Kerala, who were the custodians of this art form.”
Adoor often says when a Koodiyattam performance begins, everything around it ceases to exist. It was largely owing to the efforts of noted scholar Sudha Gopalakrishnan that Koodiyattam was recognised by the UNESCO as “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”. Adoor’s three-hour long documentary on Koodiyattam had the UNESCO team enthralled. He adds, “Koodiyattam artistes were extremely demoralised because there were few opportunities to perform and almost no audience. Kathakali on the contrary witnessed a steady ascent. Kathakali artistes were travelling all over the world and being handsomely paid. UNESCO sent a member of their team to Trivandrum to see my film. After the recognition, things are much better now. Money has been granted to the performers and several revival efforts are already underway. I feel gratified.”
The revered filmmaker insists that the audience watching his films should feel that they are watching a performance on stage. He is not a fan of abstraction in art-based documentaries. Adoor feels that dance films must convey every bit of aesthetics of the form which has also been a perennial quest in these films. His preparation for such projects is also meticulous. The Mohiniyattom documentary took around seven years to make. Adoor read every possible book available on the dance form and also saw some of the earlier films made on the subject. He chose to eschew background commentary and interviews. The focus remained on dance as it should because that perhaps is the origin of all dialogue.
Kunal Ray teaches literary and cultural studies at FLAME University, Pune and regularly writes on art and culture.
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