The music accompaniment to Kathakali

Kerala’s unique heritage of the classical dance-drama known as Kathakali is an art form where elaborate gestures and body movements are complemented by background singing. And the accompanying song – Kathakalipadam is written in a mixture of the ancient language Sanskrit and Kerala’s own language Malayalam. These verses are composed in the sopanam style, and are a must to understand the story.

Kathakalipadhams are accompanied by percussion instruments like the chengila and the ila thaalam.

In the video, Kathakalipadham is rendered by Kottakkal Madhu and Vengeri Narayanan. The percussion instruments viz. chenda and maddalam are being played by Margi Krishnadas and Kalanilayam Babu respectively.