Mobile Menu Toggle

  • Kerala Travel Ideas
    • Adventure
    • Family
    • Friends & Group
    • Heritage
  • Resorts & Staycations
    • Mountain
    • Nature
    • Seaside & Beach
    • Budget
  • Tourist Places In kerala
    • Alappuzha
    • Ernakulam
    • Idukki
    • Kozhikode
  • About kerala
  • Travel Blogs
    • Travel
    • Food & Drinks
    • Kerala

 

 

 

Forgot password?
  • Kerala Travel Ideas
    • Adventure
    • Family
    • Friends & Group
    • Heritage
  • Resorts & Staycations
    • Mountain
    • Nature
    • Seaside & Beach
    • Budget
  • Tourist Places In kerala
    • Alappuzha
    • Ernakulam
    • Idukki
    • Kozhikode
  • About kerala
  • Travel Blogs
    • Travel
    • Food & Drinks
    • Kerala

  • Art & Culture
  • Boatrace
  • Books & Literature
  • Districts in Kerala
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Festivels
  • Keral Food & Cuisine
  • Handicrafts
  • How to Reach Kerala
  • kerala Tourism
  • Language
  • Medias In Kerala
  • Shopping
  • Spices In Kerala
  • Kerala Tradition
  • Transportation
  • Weather in Kerala

Find distance between

Find Now

Kathakali

Kathakali performers use a luxuriant costume. Characters have their faces elaborately painted and they wear stylized costumes and tall headdresses. Great importance is laid on the Vesham or make-up which are of five types – Pacha, Kathi, Thadi, Kari and Minukku. The colours used in the make-up are determined by the nature of the characters. The costumes in Kathakali represents the three qualities of nature viz. satya (nobility), rajas (aggressiveness) and tamas (darkness) represented by pacha, kathi and thadi respectively. Pacha Vesham (Green) in Kathakali Dance

The faces of noble male protagonists, such as virtuous kings, the divine hero Rama, etc., are predominantly green.
Kathi Vesham (Knife)

Kathi vesham portrays villainous characters. Characters of high birth who have an evil streak, such as the asura king Ravana, are also given a similar green make-up, slashed with red marks on the cheeks.
Thadi Vesham (Beard)

Superhuman monkeys like Hanuman, and Nandikeswara are characterized by Vella Thadi (White beard).
Chuvanna Thadi (Red beard) is used to portray extremely angry or excessively evil characters.
Forest dwellers such as hunters are represented with a predominantly black make-up called Karutha Thadi (Black beard).
Kari Vesham (Black)

Kari vesham is used to portray she-demons.
Minukku Vesham
Woman role in Kathakali

Minukku vesham represents women and ascetics who have lustrous, yellowish faces.

There are specialists in the green room who help the actors in their dressing. In fact, the makeup is so luxuriant that it is more like a mask than just make-up. These extraordinary costumes and make-up serve to raise the performers above the level of mere mortals that, the audiences are taken into an ecstatic world that the characters replicate onstage.
Kathakali Mudras – Symbols used in Kathakali

A Kathakali actor enacts his ideas through Mudras. There are 24 main mudras and numerous other lesser mudras and these can be again classified into ‘Samaana-mudras’ (one mudra symbolizing two entities) or misra-mudras (both the hands are used to show these mudras).
Kathakali Music and Orchestration

The Kathakali music provides a perfect background to the performance. Chenda, maddalam, chengila and elathalam are the four instruments used to provide the instrumental background (melam) for kathakali. Normally, two singers provide the vocal accompaniment. The style of singing particular to Kathakali is called Sopana sangeetham (Sopana Music). Of the two singers, the first singer (pinnani) keeps the steady beat of the thala (rhythmic pattern) by using the chengila (gongs), made of bell metal.
Painted face of a kathakali performer

The Kathakali show is usually conducted at night and ends in early morning. The most popular stories enacted are Nala Charitam (Story of a king betrayed by Gods), Duryodhana Vadham (from Mahabharata), Kalyanasowgandhikam (Mahabharata), Keechaka Vadham (Mahabharata), Kiratham (Mahabharata), Karna Shapadham (Mahabharata) etc.
As part of popularization of the dance form, Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Biblical story of Mary Magdalin etc… were composed in Kathakali script recently.

Kathakali which symbolizes the visual art of Kerala has now developed to be qualified as a universal art. The main reason for its appeal is its attractiveness gained by the perfect blending of numerous varieties of fine arts.

Travel destinations

Meenvallom Waterfalls, Palakkad
Sree Chithra Enclave, Thiruvananthapuram
The State Museum, Thrissur, Tourist Places Near by Thrissur Museum
30 Best Tourist Places to Visit in Kochi
Best Places to Visit Near Marine drive Kochi

Best Tourist Places in Kerala

  • Munnar
  • Nelliampathi
  • Thenmala
  • Vagamon
  • Ambukuthi Mala
  • Vembanad Lake
  • Kumbalangi
  • Kozhikode Beach
  • Kumbalangi
  • Mattancherry

Kerala Information

  • kerala Districts
  • Travel Posts
  • Kerala Arts
  • Blog Posts
  • kerala Festivals
  • Kerala Cuisines
  • Handicrafts
  • Kerala Tourism
  • Contact Us
  • Policies

Trending Locations

  • Pookode Lake
  • Silent Valley
  • Vythiri
  • Vazhachal
  • Kanthalloor
  • Wayanad
  • Athirapally
  • Poovar Beach
  • Kozhikode Beach
  • Malampuzha

Are you a Travel partner or want to list your property on our website? It is free!

REGISTER NOW