“Mantrankam” A 41-day Sanskrit Play Reopened in Kerala

The Theatre Times After two decades, the fascinating ceremony of a 41-day Sanskrit play performed as a ritual offering, reopened in Kerala. Lyrical, bawdy, and instructional in turns, it combines secular with spiritual as only the ancients could. Even at 86, Kummath Appu Nair has clear memories of the monsoon evenings of his childhood. Of returning from school, pleading with his mother for permission to run off to Peruvanam, a village about a kilometer away from his home in Thrissur. And the 41 evenings spent at the grand 12th century Mahadeva temple watching legendary Koodiyattam master Mani Madhava Chakyar perform the theatrical extravaganza, Mantrankam.