Devotee aims to keep Kathakali in step with the times

When Ganesh Neelakantan Iyer boarded the flight from Singapore to Kerala recently, it wasn't to join the holiday rush from the Lion City. Instead, the computer science tutor from the National University of Singapore was on a mission – to perform in a Kathakali programme being staged in Kollam.

It wasn’t just a minor role that motivated Ganesh to make the journey. The play, “Sri Mookambika Mahathmyam”, was written by him, and that was something he couldn't afford to miss.

Ganesh represents a growing number of amateur practitioners embracing Kathakali, an art form with roots tracing back to the 17th century. However, his involvement goes beyond performance. Leveraging his expertise in computer science, Ganesh is digitising key aspects of this classical dance and utilising AI to build a comprehensive database.

Ganesh and his team have already built an AI platform prototype that can identify the makeup and costumes with the help of AI. They plan to release it to the public next year.

His next mission is much more ambitious: to build a digitised version of all the Kathakali padams or the lyrics and translate it into English. 

Ganesh’s exposure to this classical dance started when he was three years old as his Kathakali aficionado father Neelakanta Iyer used to carry him along when going to temple festivals.

“In those pre-mobile phone and social media days, my dad had a mental calendar on which temples hosted Kathakali, and we would travel hundreds of kilometres to watch them. This tradition continued through my school years and persisted even during my exams.”

“While in the ninth standard, we went for a Kathakali all-nighter on the eve of my annual exam. I came back home, got ready, and went to school to write the exam. Only after that did I finally get some sleep,” he recalls with a laugh.

This childhood passion later transformed into a quest to learn the art, involving long hours of practice and donning heavy makeup for performances. This dedication persisted during his student days at the University Engineering College at Thodupuzha and even after he landed his first job in Bangalore after passing out with top marks in 2004.

His career path eventually turned towards academics, leading to a research fellowship in 2008 at the National University of  Singapore.

When Ganesh arrived in Singapore, his initial concern was that he might have to miss his Kathakali lessons. However, within a few weeks, he spotted a Kathakali practitioner in a crowd during an event at the Indian embassy.

“He was posing for a photo. The puffed-up chest and lit eyes of that person were in such a Kathakali posture,” he recalls.

This chance encounter led to the discovery of a vibrant Kathakali community in Singapore, led by a husband-wife duo, KP Bhaskar and Santha Bhaskar. They had established a Kathakali school in the Lion City after mastering the art under Guru Gopinath in Trivandrum.

Ganesh then became a regular at Bhaskar’s academy and performed at major functions of the Malayalee community there. During one such event, the then-president of Singapore, SR Nathan, was enchanted by Ganesh’s Kathakali performance and spent some time with the artist talking about it.

As this continued, Ganesh says he started receiving questions from students and artists in different countries about the art when they came across his profile, which mentioned his involvement in Kathakali.

“Sometimes these were serious students who wanted to delve into the deep intricacies of Kathakali. Other times, it was from people who stumbled into it accidentally. That's when I realised there is a real need for a digital databank for Kathakali.”

“As a computer student and tutor, I was aware of the capabilities of technology, and as a Kathakali practitioner, I understood the problems faced by those in the field. Bringing them together was a natural way forward for me.”

Efforts to build a digital platform for ancient art forms that originated centuries ago are often hampered by a lack of digital data, especially when it comes to Asian arts.

Ganesh is currently involved in a project with a Mexican colleague at his university to create a digital archive for an Indonesian puppetry art called Wayang. It originated in the fifth century, and the puppet forms have undergone transformations over the centuries.

“Even when digitalised data is available, it may not be useful. Some American researchers took several photos of the puppets decades ago, but these snaps were taken without understanding the nuances of the art. As a result, the photo archive fails to capture many details needed to build a meaningful archive.”

However, when it came to building a dataset for Ganesh's Kathakali project, it was made easier because Ganesh and his younger brother had taken hundreds of pictures of live performances they attended from their young days.

“Ever since we got hold of a camera, we were taking pictures of the performers, so we had our own photo archives.”

The team used a cumulative neural network to enable the software to recognise different costumes. The result was impressive, as the program delivered results with 95 percent accuracy. So, those who want to know basic information about a Kathakali costume can upload a picture and receive information on colours and unique aspects.

An earlier project initiated by Ganesh to build a database of all 24 hand gestures used in Kathakali achieved 70 percent accuracy. To improve its precision, the algorithm required images of each mudra from various angles to comprehensively understand the gestures.

Despite facing such challenging hurdles, Ganesh has embarked on an even more arduous task – to transcribe and translate all the lyrics of Kathakali.

This is an ambitious task as the lyrics are not in contemporary Malayalam, but one that is heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Tamil. What makes it even more interesting is that the student researcher who took up the project is an ethnic Chinese student who doesn’t know any Indian languages.

“When we listed the project, he was the one who volunteered. He was well aware of the difficulties but was looking for a challenging project for his research work.”

“We have received seed funding of 30,000 Singapore dollars for this phase. Hopefully, we will be able to produce a convincing effort to attract funding for a full-scale project.”

Digitising all lyrics and translating them into English will make Kathakali accessible to those who don’t know Malayalam. In places like Singapore and China, during Chinese opera performances, a translated version of the story is scrolled across the stage to explain the scene. This helps even those who are not familiar with the Chinese language.

“That is what inspired me to build a complete translation of the padams, and it could make the art accessible across the globe,” says Ganesh.

He emphasises that innovations have always been a part of traditional art forms. For instance, the makeup used by Kathakali actors is an example of this.

The adornments used on the chin were traditionally made with rice paste and took three to four hours. However, when an artist turned up late, a smart makeup person started using paper along with the paste, reducing the time needed for the makeup.

“In Singapore, we amateur artists make use of a ready-to-use jaw piece that can be tied on instead of going through the elaborate process of putting on the hours-long makeup.”

Ganesh emphasises that Kathakali has survived all these years because it has adopted changes without altering its fundamental structure.

Embracing digital technology is just another step in that path, says Ganesh.

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