Tradition · solo dance-satire
Ottan Thullal
Also known as Ottan Thullal, Ottamthullal, Kunchan Nambiar, Ottan Thullal — the solo satire
A one-man Malayalam dance-monologue devised in the eighteenth century by the poet Kunchan Nambiar: fast colloquial verse, direct address to the audience, and mythological stories used as cover for attacks on local officials, temple servants and the pretensions of the learned.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 10.550, 76.210
Worth knowing
Nambiar is said to have invented it after being publicly humiliated for falling asleep at the drum during a Chakyar Koothu performance, and to have put on the new form the next day, outside the temple, where anyone could watch. Whether or not the story is true, the form is deliberately the opposite of Koodiyattam in every respect: vernacular, cheap, fast and rude.
Connections (3)
- Alternative toKūṭiyāṭṭam
Kunchan Nambiar is said to have devised Ottan Thullal after being humiliated during a Chakyar Koothu performance, and whether or not the anecdote is true the form is a point-by-point refusal of temple theatre: Malayalam instead of Sanskrit, one performer instead of a company, an afternoon instead of a fortnight, outside the temple instead of inside it, and satire on living officials instead of elaboration of a classical text.
- Institutional successionKalamandalam, Thrissur
Ottan Thullal is taught at Kerala Kalamandalam alongside Kūṭiyāṭṭam, which is a considerable irony given that Kunchan Nambiar devised it as an attack on temple theatre and its audience. Institutionalisation has done to the satire what it did to everything else on the campus: it is now performed by trained graduates in fifteen-minute concert versions, and the verses that named living officials are sung as classical literature.
- Legend set atGuruvāyūr
Kunchan Nambiar served as a Nambiar drummer in the Ambalappuzha and later the Travancore court, and the story of the form's invention is set at a temple performance where he fell asleep at the mizhavu and was publicly mocked by the Chakyar. Guruvayur and the central Kerala temple circuit are where both forms were performed, often in the same compound, which is what made the rivalry possible in the first place.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Ottan Thullal”. Sangeet Natak Akademi documentation; UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage nomination files where the practice is listed.
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