One hot summer afternoon, young Ravana was enjoying a nap on the lap of his mother, Kaikasi, when he is awakened suddenly by her tears that fall on his shoulder. He learns that his mother’s tears were triggered by the sight of his step-brother Vaisravana, the mighty King of the Yaksha clan, who traversed the sky on his divine aircraft Pushapaka, with great pomp and show. Kaikasi was lamenting over the miserable plight of her four children vis-à-vis their step-brother’s prosperity.
Ravana consoles her, determines to outdo Vaisravana in all respects and sets out to Gokarna, along with his brothers, to undertake a penance to Brahma. After a thousand years of penance, with no sign of Brahma, Ravana takes the extreme step of lopping off his heads, one by one. When the demon was about to cut off his tenth head, Brahma appears and gives him boons that bestows on him the power to conquer all the worlds, unbounded prosperity and limitless fame. Ravana then decides to conquer the worlds all alone so as to realise his ambition of becoming the mightiest hero, marries Mandodari and celebrates his sister Surpanakha’s wedding with Vidvijjihva, king of Paathala.
This episode in the life of the demon king is narrated in ‘Ravanolbhavam’ (‘The Birth of Ravana’), written by Kallekulangara Raghava Pisharody (1725 – 1799), in 16 scenes, and it was intended to be presented as a full-night play.
Appearance of three ‘red beard’ characters (Malyavan, Mali and Sumali, the latter being the maternal grandfather of Ravana) in the same scene and three ‘kathi’ characters, namely Ravana, and his brothers Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana (who used to have a ‘kathi’ make-up as in the play ‘Sri Ramapattabhishekam’) in another, plus a ‘romantic scene’ involving a great sage and a demoness were the special features of ‘Ravanolbhavam’ that made it popular in the olden days. But in due course, the tour de force of the actor donning Ravana came to be the centre of attraction and his transformational acting (‘pakarnaattam’), presenting in turn the roles of Kaikasi and Brahma and the details of the penance of the demon known as ‘thapassaattam’ (penance-acting), became the highlights of the act.
The very few women who venture into the mainly male dominated domain of Kathakali usually prefer to take the roles of heroines or their female companions. Delineating the gigantic character of Ravana in ‘Ulbhavam’ is considered the ultimate test of endurance, dexterity and rigour in training of an actor.
Rasikas who watched the presentation of Ravana by Tripunithura Ranjini Suresh were all in appreciation of her performance, which exuded a rare sense of commitment and sincerity to the responsibility undertaken. She did laudable justice to the conventional choreography with which she became familiar with from her preceptor FACT Padmanabhan and her father, the late actor and Kalamandalam-trained Vaikom Karunakaran. That paradigm, however, did not provide for any improvisation, which would have injected originality and uniqueness into her presentation.
Kalamandalam Mahesh as Kumbhakarna and Kalamandalam Arunjith as Vibhishana had just a few lines of the text to enact; unfortunately they forgot that Kumbhakarna’s seniority entitled him the position on the left nearest to Ravana, the eldest.
Kalamandalam Rajesh Babu and Kalamandalam Visvas rendered the small portion of the play text to music with pristine clarity and the majestic grandeur befitting the context. Their enthusiastic contribution to the captivating orchestra and the acting in progress was all the more commendable.
The four-member team of percussionists consisting Kalamandalam Venumohan and Kalamandalam Srihari on the chenda and Margi Rathnakaran and RLV Jithin on the maddalam placed the performance at the highest conceivable level throughout.
The triple symphony (‘thauryathrikam’) that involved exhilarating stepping up of the tempo resulted in the construction of an impeccable edifice of aesthetic pleasure.
The performance was arranged under the aegis of Drisyavedi, Thiruvananthapuram.
