Marital arts, of late, has emerged as one of the strong contenders for artistes to prove their prowess in performing arts. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them perform at most of the dance festivals across the country, and this has surely helped them gain momentum in getting noticed in cities and among audiences who wouldn’t have probably heard of martial arts like Kalaripayattu a.k.a Kalari. The Kala Ghoda Arts festival in Mumbai will see martial arts on the dance stage for the first time in its original form. Kalaripayattu, martial art form from Kerala and classical Manipuri dance along with Thang Ta are some of the martial arts, dance lovers will be witnessing over this weekend.
Belraj Soni, Kalaripayattu expert from Kerala is going to present a famous story of a king who loses his battle in a war. “Aham Pratigayasmi (I am back) is about a famous king (Pahassi Raja) who loses his battle. All is not lost as he learns from his mistakes and trains harder to come back to win the losing game. It will be choreographed by a member of our dance company Dilsaga,” he says.
Soni, who is going to perform Kalaripayattu for the first time at Kala Ghoda says, “Kalari means space for practice, payattu means fight. It is one of the oldest fighting systems in existence and is practised in Kerala and neighbouring parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It includes some rigorous movements such as strikes, kicks, grappling, preset forms, weaponry and healing methods. Regional variants are classified according to demographics in Kerala. The northern style was practised primarily by the Nairs, the martial caste of Kerala, and Ezhavas, as well as some Mappilas and Syrian Malabar Nasranis. The southern style, called adi murai, was practiced largely by the Nadars and has features distinguishing it from its other regional counterparts. Northern Kalari is based on the principle of hard technique, while the southern style primarily follows the soft techniques, even though both systems make use of internal and external concepts,” elaborates Soni.
Considering it is such a difficult art form, it is important for any student of Kalari to control over their mind through meditation, which will help in gaining strong concentration. “Traditionally you can start learning from the age of seven, but today there are no such rules. You can start learning from any age and if you find the right teacher, then nothing can stop you because the guru is very important. As dance forms have rhythmic patterns, Kalari is to be performed in accordance with Vaithari (command from the guru).
Another interesting performance to look forward to is Latasana Devi, a senior disciple of eminent Manipuri dancer Darshana Javeri, and a troupe of Manipuri dancers who will present an ensemble of Manipuri, Pung Cholom, and martial arts in the form of Thang Ta. “We will perform Nachom, a classical dance item of Manipuri and then small pieces of jugalbandi between Pung Chulom and the martial arts form Thang Ta. There are various similarities between these forms and that will be the crux of our ensemble. It was challenging because Thang Ta is elaborate and difficult, and it’s not simple to easily dance to it. We would be dancing to the same syllable on stage and hopefully it enthralls our audiences,” says Latasana Devi.