Kannur: Yakshagana, a theater form that combines dance, music, and dialogues in Kannada, is mostly staged in Karnataka. No wonder that it is popular in Kasaragod, which borders Karnataka, especially during Diwali.
The Yakshagana competition (HS) at Kalolsavam had 17 teams, of which 10 were trained Yakshagana exponent M. Madhavan Nettanika, a regular at Kalolsavam for nearly a decade. The competition was expected to be over by 8 pm.
The teams trained by him are Kannur, Thrissur, Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Idukki, Wayanad, and Pathanamthitta. He himself was confused as there were 10 teams preparing to go on stage. Perhaps, he couldn't identify the team members.
“The team from Kasaragod often wins the competition as most of its members are trained for eight years, while the teams from other districts learn it within three months with just the aim of winning a prize,” he said.
“Those who learn this art form in three months should be appreciated as they perform very well and get A grades too even if they don’t know Kannada,” he said.
It is difficult to learn the language in three months and hence, he writes all the dialogues in Malayalam and makes them learn it by heart.
Madhavan makes sure that the participants learn the steps thoroughly, which, according to him, is easy to pick up.
Once it is perfected, he teaches the dialogues which take time. “The challenging part is the dialogue delivery. Therefore, I make sure that they understand the story before they perform on stage,” said Madhavan.
The students selected by Madhavan are not trained dancers. For them, this is something new. “It was difficult for us to learn the language but our master made it easy for us,” said Sajana and Sneha of Jyothi Nilayam School, Thiruvananthapuram.
Most of the stories are drawn from epics like Ramayana and Mahabharatha. Seven participants will perform an episode from the epic, which takes 28 minutes. Yakshagana is usually performed by men, but there are many female participants in Kalolsavam.
Madhavan, who hails from Bellur panchayat in Kasaragod, learned Yakshagana at a young age.
“There are very few takers for this art form but we are trying our best to make it popular. The art form was included as a competition event in Kalolsavam when M.A.Baby was the education minister. Hareendran master and his friends Jayaram Pattani and Prasad Samshayam artistes from Kozhikode had to even organize agitations to include Yakshagana in Kalolsavam. The promise by M.A.Baby to include the event was later fulfilled,” said Madhavan.
Madhavan, who has been teaching Yakshagana for 35 years, hopes the contestants would take this unique art form seriously rather than just learning it for the sake of prizes and grades.
