Director: G. Aravindan; Writer: Kavalam Narayana Panicker; Producer: Kavalam Narayana Panicker; Cinematographer: Shaji N. Karun; Cast: Sadanandan Krishnamurthy, Kalamdalam Keshavan, Urmila Unni, Krishnankutty Nair
Summary: Panicker’s one-act play deals with the relation
of identification between an actor and his or
her role. Aravindan put the stress on the
relations between the viewer and the actor/role
dualities. The action takes place on the eve of
the last act of the Kathakali piece
Keechakavadham (The Killing of Keechaka).
The events surrounding the performance
uncannily echo events in the play. One
character even claims to have killed the lead
actor of the play because he detested the
character the man portrayed. However, the
three different accounts that are presented of
the same plot are never resolved or reconciled
with each other. Each version is accompanied
by a different style of folk-music: the tune and
rhythm of southern Kerala’s thampuran pattu,
the pulluvan pattu and the ayappan pattu. The
performers were drawn from the theatre and
from Kathakali. In southern India, with its
plethora of politicians using their film images
to acquire inordinate wealth and power,
Aravindan’s TV film bears on an eminently
sensitive political as well as aesthetic issue.
Indiancine.ma requires JavaScript.
