When Kathakali met Flamenco

If Kathakali is known for elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements, popular Spanish dance form Flamenco is all about passion, sensuality and graceful moments. The marriage between the two dance forms culminated in the city recently with dance-drama Draupadi that was loosely based on the episode “Draupadi Vastraharan” from the Mahabharata.

Directed by Madrid-based Cesar Lorente Raton, the role of Draupadi, wife of five Pandava brothers, was essayed by Spanish danseuse Bettina Castano and it staged the scene where Dushasana, a Kaurava prince, tries to undress Draupadi before divine help saves her.

The anti-hero is eventually killed by Bhima, who is one of Draupadi’s husbands, in the Mahabharata war. The euphoria of the husband and the wife came as a mix of
Flamenco and Kathakali movements.

“Love, hate, anger are all universal feelings. The Mahabharata has many such stories,” says Cesar. “I took one episode that I had seen being performed in Kathakali and used it to express my concern about horrific crimes and abuse against women in all parts of the planet.”

Cesar also notes that Draupadi in the Vyasa classic was made into a commodity to be pawned during a gamble by her husband. “She is later being humiliated in public. It shows how women were treated as objects as far back as 3,000 years ago. I chose this story, as it is a universal theme, which anyone can relate to,” he says.

It was a fellow theatre person who suggested Cesar to give Kathakali a contemporary twist. “I worked on the idea for almost a year before Kathakali met Flamenco on stage,” he adds.

Stage artistes from Kerala Biju Kumar and Biju Lal played the roles of green-faced Bhima and red-beard Dushasana. Indian pop star Suneeta Rao and singer Radakrishnan sung songs in languages ranging from English to Hindi to Sanskrit to Malayalam.