S. Jayakumar
Thidambu nritham concert of puthumana govindan namboothiri is in my mind from my early days. His escalation was very fast in such a way that we, the young children of those times could distinguish him highly respected in temples while he was in his teenage, between 15 and 20. In the years of my teens and now also, there is no alteration in the immensity in thidambu nritham of puthumana govindan namboothiri. Puthumana has a place in all temples for thidambu nritham, let it be vishu festival in month of April on 14-15 or thiruvathira in December-January or Malabar pooram in March-April or sivarathri in February-March or prathishta uthsav. Opportunity we got included see kathakali and ottan thullal, matching to it inside temple we see thidambu nritham of puthumana. He got credits at a very young age. I have seen his thidambu nritham at temples while he was very young at around 11 pm and witness many award ceremonies by various temple committees after that. Thidambu nritham is measured very important in temples of kerala, usually the northern part 800 years older. It was of a huge surprise to the spectators was that he could carry huge murtis at temple and dance at ease during his teenages. We saw him coming up in thidambu nritham performing at most of the temples in Malabar. Puthumana remains at the first position in Kerala dance exponents including kathakali and one among the best in Indian temple dancers. His versatility and flexibility in thidambu nritham is due to the fact that dance will be safe in him at different temples irrespective of change in rituals, beats or situations. In interviews, Puthumana speaks about intense training at 13 years of age. However, he became very popular only after 17, after going through different venues and kalaris. Luck came Govindan Namboothiri’s way when he was extensively acknowledged and accepted as a popular temple dancer who can do extremely well in any arangu and get better over the time. While on one side Puthumana do not compromise with destroying the thidambu nritham traditional steps and originality, on the other side, he applies manodarma in a natural way also to mesmerize thousands looking at his foot on what novel magical steps can they witness on stage. Puthumana Govindan Namboothiri’s inventions on vishnupurana, sivathandava, kaliyamarddana and akroorayatra are all have scripted golden chapters in dance history. One will be extremely fortunate to see his foot and body movements and all mudras he develops during thidambu nritham. Puthumana Govindan Namboothiri has learned dance very carefully and now also the circumspection he go after for materialization of each step is impressive to be replicated.
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