Ravanesan staged in Jaffna after 40 years

Ravanesan staged in Jaffna after 40 years -
A Feature
By: S. Somitharan

The Eelam Kooththu Festival was celebrated in Jaffna between 11 and 14 September this year, organised by the Jaffna Centre for the Performing Arts. The festival saw discussions and seminars held in the morning, lightened by a series of kooththu performances in the evenings, culminating in Ravanesan on the final night, which was revived in Jaffna after 40 years.

On the morning of the first day, a discussion was held on the kooththu tradition of the upcountry areas, where speakers drew attention to how the dramatic form had grown and transformed over time to communicate important ideas on contemporary political and economic questions that affected the people of the upcountry area, and the influence the dance form had on the public.

That evening Arichunanthabasu, a kooththu from the upcountry Tamil areas was performed.

The second day�s discussions were devoted to the kooththu traditions of Batticaloa in its various forms such as Vadamodi and Thenmodi. Present trends of the evolving dance form were explored and what it might be in store for the future. There was a separate session on the kooththus from the Vanni and on �Therukkooththu.

In the evening was an exhibition of kamankooththu that is native to the hill country, which is not a spectacle as such, but the performance similar to a religious ritual. This was followed by a Thenmodi kooththu, Ekalaivan.

The third day�s proceedings focused on the kooththus of Jaffna, including the Vaddukoddai kooththu. The discussion centred around the Vaddukoddai kooththu being a dying art form since there were very few performances of it in temples and so on. Participants contrasted this with the Thenmodi, which is the quintessential Catholic kooththu that remains a vibrant art form, due to its integral place at feasts of the Catholic Church and other Christian rituals.

On the final day discussions centred on the formation of a national theatre and on how country dancing could evolve towards national theatre. The evening saw the staging of Ravanesan.

To those associated with the arts, the revival of Ravanesan after 40 years was a moment of nostalgia. Ravanesan was among the kooththus that were modified and modernised by Professor Vithianandan in his bid to take the dance form to the proscenium arch theatre from its traditional mooring in the village vattakalari.

According to certain critics, it was this, which enabled the kooththu to hurdle the divide from that of a country-dance to becoming accepted as sophisticated theatre.

Ravanesan stands the traditional plot of Valminki�s Ramayana on its head by portraying Ravana as the hero, who will rather die in battle than yield to an enemy. The portrayal is interpreted as the celebration of Dravidianess over its traditional northern enemy.