Amazing Amazing Anil Anil

Malappuram (Kerala) based Kuchipudi dancer and Teacher Sri. Anil Vettikkattiri trained under Kuchipudi legends of our times including Nilambur Indrani Vishwanath, Geetha Sukumaran, Nilambur Mohan Master, Gireesh Naduvath, Baburaj Malappuram, Kalamandalam Husna Banu, Dr. Vasundhara Duraisami, Smt. Vyjayanthi Kashi, Natya Visharada Anupama Mohan, Kalaimamani Shailaja, Nithya Kalyani Chennai (Nattuvangam Guru)

He has directed the 10 episodes of Devikam for Asianet and Navyami Navarathri Doordarsan. He did choreography for the film Nayanam and also worked for Seven Albums. He has composed music in more than 50 works written by Sri. Suresh Naduvath and OM Manoj.

He has been awarded Natya Kousthubham Puraskar, Nadanakalanidhi Puraskar (2014) , International Dance Day Award, Simhapuri Natya Rathna Puraskar , Narya Rathnakara Puraskar.

When did you start training and when When did you start training and when when did you do Arangetram? Arangetram?

My sister Usha Srinivasan was my first guru, elder to me by 10 year used to be a dancer and was training at that time she used to teach me whatever she had learnt that day once she used to be back home from her dance class. May be seeing my interest in dance my parents took me to her guru under whom I started my training. I did my arangetram at Shri Durga Bhagavathy temple in my village at the age of around 5.

Tell us something about Tell us us Kuchipudi? Kuchipudi?

Kuchipudi originated in kusilavpuri near Vijay wada in Andhra Pradesh. It is also known as Bhagavatha mela was brought up and nurtured by 12 families of Kusilavpuri namely; Bhagavatula, Pasumarthy, Vempatty, Chinta, Hari, Mahankali, Vemu, Darbha, Tadepali, Yeleswarapu, Vedantham, Bokka, These families took it up as their source of livelihood. Thanjavur King Nawab Hasan Tana Shah had bestowed these family with right to the village land after being impressed by their Bhagavatha mela presentation

It is said in early day there were ladies in dance, but majorly they were avoided as the dances presented at royal courts and to protect them for many public discomforts. For many years men continued to play sthree vesham and there came decline in opportunities

They faced competition from dancers from nearby Tamil Nadu region who used to perform Bharathanatyam. The women were brought to increase likeability as well as plates were introduced to make it more challenging and attractive to garner people’s attention. With rise in popularity of the dance form the village’s name was changed from Kusilavpuri to Kuchipudi. Bhama Kalapam and Kola Kalapam were two dance dramas which they used to present and later worked to create new work and major work was done by Vempati Chinnasatyam guru who created a frame work by setting up of adavu system and item division etc. were accomplished. Vedantam Satyanarayana Sharma, Vedantam Radhe Shyam used to perform and popularized stree vesham in Kuchipudi.

There is a huge difference in both the styles. Kuchipudi incorporates chaturvidh abhinaya i.e. Angika, Vachika, Aharya and Satvik abhinaya. It is very flexible. It is quite distinct from Bharatnatyam in aharyaam aspect. for example, use of jada or hair. There exists an entire chapter on Jada vrittantam to be studied it includes variety of hair styles, ornaments for hair flowers for hair etc. The costume also varies from Bharatnatyam and are very vibrant. Male characters and female characters costume have marked difference in Kuchipudi.

Kuchipudi includes Purvarangam, Jatiswaram, Padam, Keertanam, Tarangam, Pravesha Dharavu, Bhama Kalapam, Ashtapadi, Javali and Tillana. Tarangam is the only item where plate is used as a prop some people use pot. The dance has to be very flowing they mind and body should move freely uninhibited in Kuchipudi.

Your family is group of dancers how did Your family group of dancers how did Your group become one? Were they supportive since become one? Were they supportive since become the beginning? the beginning?

In my family my mother sings, father was an instrumentalist, sister Usha is a dancer and other sister Arundhati love dance and singing but is working at Calicut district hospital as assistant nurse . My wife Premlatha and three children Srushti Desakshi, Sidhendra Chokkalingam, Varahalu Revagupti all of five of us have been performing together.

I used to perform male characters and dressing before 20years guru Anupama guided to perform stree vesham as I lean figure and started up as an experiment. At the start it was more of inquisitiveness for the people when I started to do stree vesham, I was only person who was doing stree vesham during that time in Kerala not even on television no one was there even doing comedy. But today we see it has become lot more common. After my marriage I found support in my wife also supported me, my entire family came in support. My wife is the one who selects the colours for the saree of my stage performances. We have very talented make up artists and it takes up around 3 hour or even more to perfect the stree vesham transformation.

What were your experience as a

What were your experience as a teacher od Kuchipudi dance? teacher od Kuchipudi dance? Kuchipudi

Vyjayanti Kashi was my early guru and got trained under her for 2 years, later I started training under Guru Anupama Mohan. I came to understand the importance and contribution of the 12 families during this period.

Guru Anupama Mohan was one of the senior most disciple of Guru Vempati Chinna Satyam. It was along with my friend Thrissur Dharmaraj that I went to train under guru Anupama teacher. In 2000s there were very few Kuchipudi teachers and artists. The biggest platform to perform was at Kerala school festival and it was an important turn around. Although at early years my students didn’t get any prizes, this may be due to the fact that our styles were not very common in Kerala, but slowly it was recognised and well noticed. The school festival were the biggest stage and platform for recognition it we clinched that. I got opportunity to teach in 13 districts of the 14 districts and get my students perform from each district and also well awarded. Today my students have taken up the baton and continuing teaching and learning. I have done 1012 dance dramas it was great blessing of which my most loved drama is French story of Cindrella which scripted into Malayalam language and presented at various stages in Kuchipudi style.

You have been active in films You have been active in films have short films and documentary short films and documentary and documentary making. Ho is the experience making. Ho is the experience is and what are your future plans? and what are your future plans? are plans?

Short films are quite exciting. during lockdown I found it to be difficult to sit idle, with no shows, and all classes being suspended I was very much bored. I used to write stories and poems 20 years back. My son Sidhendra has a camera he loves to capture phots and video. After I discussed with him that I would like to create something from my stories and poems written, He was the one who suggested me to write on something relevant to current scenario. “Varikuzhi” short story was written during pandemic and showcased the life of artists during the pandemic. It was around 12minute in length and was very much appreciated. Everybody encouraged me and came up with a story of 2 kids on Onam celebration and disparity between them in economical lines it was titled “Onakodi”. I had written a longer story for the purpose of film adaptation “Kolambipaattu” it took a lot of time it fetched best film award as well as best actress award. Then I worked on 10episode web series “Mooshika stree” next is up the sleeve. Now classes have started up, don’t know how directing and dance will go about but I hope to direct a good movie someday.

What would be your message for upcoming artists?

All upcoming generation of dancers is that in Kerala around 90 percent of dancers want to take up dance as a livelihood. Studies are very important; art is important learn art. Art has to be taken up as a sub profession. A regular job is important, during pandemic many artists have suffered. A regular job at hand will help survival security. Education and art should go hand in hand for real and sustainable success.