Journalism of Courage
‘I hope more girls from the community will come forward to learn the temple art forms,’ says 16-year-old Sabri N .This year’s Vijayadashami will mark a first in the 125-year history of Kerala Kalamandalam as a Muslim girl takes the stage to perform the classical temple art form of Kathakali. Sixteen-year-old Sabri N will perform the Krishna vesham, a form of dance that blends drama and music based on the Ramayana.
In 2023, Sabri had become the first Muslim girl student to enrol for the prestigious Kathakali course at Kalamandalam, a centre for performing arts and a deemed-to-be university of art and culture.
“This is going to be my first stage performance, and it marks a milestone in my journey to the dream career of a Kathakali dancer and teacher. I have a long journey to go in this course. Over the last two years, I have been undergoing training at Kalamandalam, but this is the first time I will be donning the costume of a Kathakali dancer. I have chosen Krishna vesham. We are seven students, ready for a debut stage performance. All others are Hindus,” said Sabri, who is in class 10.
Sabri’s father, Nizam S, a resident of Edamulackal village in Kollam district, can barely contain his excitement. “We have been fully backing Sabri to cherish her childhood dream. As parents, our role is to handhold her to the stage for this arangettam (debut performance). In future, she may become a Kathakali artist, but her first stage performance is our dream. Her course is not over. It can go up to post-graduation. We will continue to support her in this journey,” said Nizam, a photographer who has been running a studio for more than two decades.
Kalamandalam registrar P Rajesh Kumar said the institute decided to admit girls into Kathakali from 2022. “Kathakali maestro Kalamandalam Gopi suggested we admit girls to bring gender neutrality to this art form. This decision has seen a good response, and now we have 40 girls studying various Kathakali courses, which were once male-dominated. Sabri also joined the Kathakali course as a result of that change,” he said.
Sabri said her two years at Kalamandalam have been a great learning experience. “One more Muslim girl joined the institute for dance. I hope more girls from the community will come forward to learn the temple art forms,” she said.
Nizam said the family faced criticism from some sections after his daughter made the choice. “It is quite natural, and we were not bothered about it much. Tomorrow, our villagers are coming to Kalamandalam to watch her arangettam,” he said.
Nizam’s wife Aneesa, a homemaker, and eldest son Muhammed Yasin have already reached the Kalamandalam campus at Cheruthuruthy in Thrissur.
Kerala Kalamandalam opened up its residential Kathakali course for both boys and girls in 2021. Until 2021, the institute had only been admitting boys since the courses require dancers’ bodies to be regularly massaged. But the institute decided to admit girls without making massage mandatory for them. Besides, the dwindling number of boys for the course has opened up space for girls.
Sabri developed an interest in the temple art form by watching night-long Kathakali dance performances based on the Ramayana at a temple near her village in Kollam, where Nizam used to shoot the performances as part of the Shivratri festival. First, she got enthused over the images of the Kathakali captured on his camera. Later, she joined her father to watch the performance at the temple ground itself.
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