Kalamandalam Gopi

Kalamandalam Gopi

Kalamandalam Gopi is one of the most famous Kathakali artistes from Kerala, southern India, celebrated for his seminal contributions to the aesthetics and popularity of the classical dance-drama across the world. With a happy blend of the solid body grammar of the highly stylised Kalluvazhi tradition in which he was groomed and the more flexible, part-realistic, emotion-laden southern style techniques he acquired later in his career, Gopi has won massive audience appreciation in Kerala and elsewhere regardless of one’s aesthetic choices and biases.

Tall, chirpy Gopiyasan, as he is fondly called by fans, is renowned for the romantic and dramatic portrayal of the virtuous pachcha roles in Kathakali, notable among them being Nalan, Karnan and Rukmangadan. He is equally adept in essaying the choreographically denser roles like Bheeman (in the stories Kalyanasougandhikam or Bakavadham), Arjuna (Subhadraharanam) and Dharmaputrar (that’s Yudhishthira in Kirmeeravadham). Gopi, a Padma Shri awardee, also excels in the yellow-faced pazhuppu roles such as Balabhadra, and has of late also branched out to portray variety roles like the anti-heroic Kathi (like Ravana, Keechaka and Duryodhana) black-bearded Kaatalan (Kiratham), red-bearded Bali (Balivijayam) and even the semi-realistic looking Brahmanan in Santanagopalam.

The 1937-born Gopi, a senior disciple of Padma Bhushan Kalamandalam

Kalamandalam Gopi as Krishnan in Kuchela Vritham

Ramankutty Nair and the late Kalamandalam Padmanabhan Nair besides Padma Shri Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, had his training in Kathakali from Kerala Kalamandalam near Shoranur. Before that, he had a brief career as a practitioner of the more folksy Ottamthullal, the solo dance form with lyrics by the legendary Kunchan Nambiar, a pathbreaking satirist poet. That stint was followed by his initiation into Kathakali by a leading guru called Thekkinkattil Ramunni Nair at the Koodallur Mana (a mansion of an upper-caste Namboodiri family) near Gopi’s native Kothachira village in the cusp of Thrissur and Palakkad districts.

As a teenager itself, Gopi, whose real name is Vadakke Manalath Govindan Nair, was noticed as a promising student, and he didn’t belie expectations. (The story goes that Kalamandalam co-founder, poet Vallathol Narayana Menon, was so impressed with Gopi’s chiselled dusky facial features, that the candidate was made to skip the test of make-up ahead of his induction as a trainee.) Soon after completion of his course in Kalamandalam, Gopi was recruited as a staffer in his alma-mater. The institution then had a minor Kathakali troupe for its up-and-coming artistes, and Gopi soon turned out to be a rising star among them.

By 1960s, his charming male protagonist roles found an equally graceful complement in the form of Kottakkal Sivaraman, who too gained name as a leading exponent of female roles on the stage. Gopi, together with Sivaraman, a pupil of Padma Shri Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair, soon made a glorious couple, especially as Nala-Damayanti. They still adorn stages as Karna and Kunthi, Rugmangadan and Mohini among many other roles. Of late, Gopi has a younger colleague, Margi Vijayakumar, acting opposite him oftener.

Gopi, a recipient of the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi award, retired from Kalamandalam in 1992 as its principal, aged 55, after 36 years of tutorial service, and now stays in Mundoor, a village 12 km north of Thrissur, with his wife and two sons. He, however, is still busy as a Kathakali artiste — gracing stages across his native Kerala, and the rest of India and abroad (mostly during the cultural off-season in his state). Scholars and avid Kathakali watchers alike acknowledge him as a legitimate successor to the legacy of Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, arguably the greatest-ever Kathakali artiste, who died in 1990 at the age of 75.

World-famous filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has made a documentary movie on the master. Titled Kalamandalam Gopi, the film won rave reviews across venues, and was shown at the International Film Festival of India in 2000 besides several prestigious festivals within India and the West and Far East. Incidentally, Gopi has also acted (without Kathakali make-up or costumes) in a couple of Malayalam feature films like Vanaprastham (directed by Shaji N. Karun) and Shantham (by Jayaraj).