Karnatic Kattaikkuttu
(2017-2019)
TM Krishna | P Rajagopal | Sangeetha Sivakumar | Hanne M de Bruin
Karnatic Kattaikkuttu (2017-2019) is an experimental production in which two equally complex performing art forms - “classical” Karnatic concert music and “folk” Kattaikkuttu theatre - collaborate to explore what both forms share, where they differ and how they speak to and with each other. It brought together four collaborators: Karnatic vocalist Thodur Madabusi Krishna; Kattaikkuttu actor, director, and playwright Perungattur Ponnusami Rajagopal; Karnatic vocalist Sangeetha Sivakumar; and Hanne M. de Bruin, an India-based scholar and dramaturg.
Karnatic concert music and Kattaikkuttu theater represent different cultural and social worlds. The forms occupy opposite ends of a continuum that divides the Indian performing arts into “classical” and “folk”—labels that in terms of prestige are equivalent to “high” and “low.” This distinction appears to be social and political rather than artistic. The fact that they shared the same space in this experimental production constituted a political statement.
Karnatic Kattaikkuttu features the episode of the Disrobing of Draupadi and Duryodhana as the single survivor on the last day of the Mahabharata war from the traditional Kattaikkuttu repertoire.
At the heart of the production is an extraordinary musical match between Krishna and Rajagopal in which they articulate and debated—through songs and verbal explanations in Tamil and English—the differing perceptions people have of Karnatic music and Kattaikkuttu, language, and caste.
Rajagopal, in a composition he wrote himself, describes art as ulaippu (உழைப்பு), hard physical labor, highlighting the physical demands of Kattaikkuttu on the actor’s body. Krishna contrasts this with the (Brahminical) view of art as disembodied, spiritual wisdom.
Karnatic Kattaikkuttu premiered in Mumbai in December 2017 under the auspices of First Edition Arts. Subsequently it featured at the Serendipity Festival in Goa and Kochi Biennale (2018) and was performed at Rangashankara Theater Bangalore, the lawns of the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai and Kalakshetra in Chennai (2019).
The production came to a standstill because of the pandemic. 2024 saw a retake of Karnatic Kattaikkuttu, this time without the intimate discussion between TM Krishna and P Rajagopal, on the occasion of the 20-year celebrations of Ranga Shankar Theater. And immediately thereafter, the production featured in the 2024 annual festival of the Kattaikkuttu Sangam.
To listen to the making of Karnatic Kattaikkuttu click here.
For an insider’s perspective on Karnatic Kattaikkuttu, read Hanne M. de Bruin’s essay in The Drama Review (TDR 243 Fall 2019).
