By Gaggan Sabherwal
BBC South Asia Diaspora Reporter, London
5th November 2018
In the 1960’s many people followed the ‘hippy trail’ – travelling overland to India. Kalamandalam Barbara Vijayakumar a young artist from Rochdale in the UK too took this route in 1972 but took a wrong turn and got off at the wrong train station and ended up in Southern India where she accidentally discovered Kathakali and its three dimensional makeup called chutti. Kathakali is a centuries old classical form of dance-drama originating from Kerala that uses dance, drama, music and emotion to tell stories mainly from the Hindu epics.
‘’When I saw Kathakali for the first time it took my breath away. I had no idea that it would change my life forever’’.
(Picture Credit : Gaggan Sabherwal)
Kalamandalam Barbara Vijayakumar along with her Indian born husband Kalamandalam Vijayakumar have been bringing this centuries old South Indian dance drama to the UK audiences for the last 31 years.
What is Kathakali?
Kathakali (story play) is a 17th century classical form of dance-drama originating from Kerala in Southern India.
Hindu universal stories about the struggle between good and evil are conveyed through elaborate makeup, beautiful costumes, intricate jewellery, dance, music and drama.
The story is enacted purely by the movements of the hands (mudras), facial expressions (rasas) and body movements - there are 24 basic mudras.
Kathakali is usually performed only by men and female characters are portrayed by men dressed in women's costume.
What is Chutti?
Chutti is the three dimensional and breathtakingly, elaborate and beautiful Kathakali makeup that’s used to narrate a story. Barbara has been specialising in chutti for the last 45 years and is the first female and Non-Indian chutti artist in the world.
‘’ The day I saw chutti for the first time, it was like looking at the gods that had come from heaven to earth. It just was the most wonderful thing that I’d ever seen and from that day on, I was devoted to chutti’’ recalls Barbara.
(Picture Credit : Gaggan Sabherwal)
Chutti is usually made using rice paste and paper and helps to transform the human face into different magnificent Kathakali characters. The process of the Kathakali makeup and chutti is an elaborate and painstaking one and can take Barbara anything between 3-6 hours to complete just one makeup.
The colours used in Kathakali Makeup
All the colours used in these awe inspiring and breath taking beautiful makeup are obtained from natural ingredients and powdering stones mixed with a base of coconut oil.
Each colour used in the makeup depicts either a certain character or quality or meaning. For example: Green denotes godliness, White denotes spirituality, Red denotes turmoil, Black denotes evil and Yellow denotes combination of godliness and turmoil.
Barbara first met her husband Kalamandalam Vijayakumar, a renowned Kathakali artist in Kerala when she was studying chutti and fell in love and later married him.
‘’After our marriage, we decided to move to the UK and in 1987 we formed the Kala Chetana Kathakali Company to enable us to share this magical art form with the people of Britain’’, says Vijaya. And over the last three decades, the couple have performed in over 5,000 shows and in front of nearly half a million people in the UK alone.
The pair’s Kala Chetana Kathakali Company usually put up performances and organise workshops in various schools, colleges, theatres, community halls and centres in and around the UK. And all these events are either funded by the Arts Council or the National Lottery fund. Sometimes the various schools and theatre companies that invite Barbara and Vijaya to perform, pay the couple for their performances. Their shows are usually free for people to attend and watch thus making their Kathakali shows accessible to everyone.
(Picture Credit : Kalamandalam Barbara Vijayakumar)
Training as a chutti artist
‘’The training is really hard and long and took me 8 hours a day over sixteen weeks to learn how to control the flow of the rice paste as it is applied to the actors faces. Once you have mastered this skill you then have to learn all the chutti designs by heart. A chutti artist has to learn perfection and then speed’’, says Barbara.
(Picture Credit : Kalamandalam Barbara Vijayakumar)
But how did the Kathakali community in Kerala react to a Non-Indian and female chutti artist?
‘’Traditionally Kathakali has been performed by male dancers. So when I arrived in Kerala to learn chutti I was initially excluded by my all male classmates. The boys would ignore me and I would be left feeling isolated and lonely. But slowly things started to change and I made friends and settled down’’, Barbara says when asked about how the Kathakali community and her chutti classmates reacted to her learning Kathakali makeup.
Parvati Nair from the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan an Indian arts centre in London and also a former Kalamandalam Kerala student recalls the reaction at her institute when Barbara a female and a Non-Indian approached them expressing her interest in learning chutti.
‘’ It created a sort of sensation as forget being a female, Barbara was also a foreigner from another country who approached Kalamandalam Kerala in 1972 wanting to learn chutti which was and still largely is a man’s world. Everybody in the district, community and institute were talking about this girl from the UK and it’s no surprise that Barbara has achieved so much in the last 45 years. She was always dedicated, passionate, hardworking and focussed. She gave chutti and Kathakali her all and inspite of not speaking the language and not knowing the country and culture Barbara has achieved so much which is simply remarkable and fantastic.
The credit of bringing Kathakali to the UK and Europe to millions of people outside Kerala and India undoubtedly goes to Kalamandalam Barbara Vijayakumar and Kalamandalam Vijayakumar.If it wasn’t for this couple Kathakali and chutti wouldn’t have achieved this global recognition, I think. Their contribution to Kathakali and chutti has been very valuable and commendable’’.
Why is Kathakali and chutti a man’s world? Why don’t we see more women in chutti and Kathakali?
(Picture Credit : Kalamandalam Barbara Vijayakumar)
Till date both chutti and Kathakali are still predominately an all boy’s club and Paravati can’t recall any other female chutti artist besides Barbara. She says if there are any women chutti artists then they will only be a handful.
The reason women didn’t get into Kathakali and chutti according to Parvati is ‘’that in olden days parents didn’t encourage their daughters to get into Kathakali and chutti as it was a male led dance-drama and also the costumes in Kathakali are very heavy and not fit for females. Even the headgears worn by Kathakali actors are very heavy and the musical instruments and music in Kathakali are loud and heavy for female performers’’.
Parvati feels that Barbara is truly an inspiration to women who want to get into Kathakali and chutti and hopes more women take up this beautiful dance-drama.
To be accepted as a professional chutti artist was another hurdle Barbara had to face and overcome. ‘’I had to prove I was good enough to apply chutti on the actors faces, know all the chuttis, apply them in time and have the experience to manage the chuttis alone. To be accepted took many years and for Padmashree Kalamandalam Gopi one of India’s top Kathakali actors along with all the other top performers, to allow me to do their chuttis is indeed a great honour. I am the first and only woman to apply chutti on these major actors’ faces’’, she says with pride.
What keeps Barbara and Vijaya from going on and on and what are their future plans?
45 years on, what is it about Kathakali that has kept the couple from going on and what are their future plans?
‘’Despite the various hurdles and challenges we have faced over the last 31 years, the reaction and feedback from our audiences have so far been simply fantastic and very positive. And this has only encouraged us to go on and on’’, says Vijaya proudly.
Barbara is quick to add– ‘’When we both die all the Kathakali costumes and a set of my own costumes will go to the Victoria & Albert museum in London to be part of their collection. My own work will represent 20th Century Performance art - not bad for a kid from a council estate in Rochdale - and Kathakali world theatre. Is it’’?
(Kala Chetana Kathakali Company website: http://www.kathakali.net/)
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