MODERN MAKEOVER FOR ANCIENT ART

Perungattur Po Rajagopal, a Kattaikkuttu practitioner of over six decades, is on a mission to break gender barriers and reshape folk theatre education

- S GURUVANMIKANATHAN @ Chennai

FOR nearly 20 years before his visit to the Udupi Yakshagana Kendra in Karnataka in 1982, Perungattur Po Rajagopal had been taught the art of Kattaikkuttu the traditional way.

Like every artiste, his command over the art form stemmed from years of careful observation of his masters' performances on stages, with all their complexities, imitation of their movements, however nuanced, and persistent practice, which shaped the person as a whole. For him, learning happened on the move and during the nightlong performances, where memory slips and cue misses are laid bare in front of the audience. At the Yakshagana training centre, however, the beat of the drums lingered long after the performances, the art was allowed to stay still, and knowledge was not tacit anymore, but recorded in texts. The space for learning reframed his understanding of how the teaching methods needed to evolve to allow knowledge to be transferred through a pedagogical structure.

In 1990, Rajagopal established Kattaikkuttu Sangam, a nonprofit organisation in Kancheepuram, run by and for professional Kattaikkuttu performers. Twelve years later, the organisation founded the Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam, which accomplished the transference of knowledge through formal education. For his pioneering efforts in preserving the art form and innovations in teaching it to new generations of artistes, Rajagopal was conferred with the Kalaimamani Award in 2005.