Sajitha Madathil's KALI NAATAKAM Explores Themes of Womanhood

Indian actress, Sajitha Madathil's latest project, 'Kali Naatakam' explores the idea of womanhood. It will be staged at Tagore Theatre at 6 pm on Friday.

In an article in The Hindu, She recollects about jumping from the stage in a performance in Assam where she fractured her leg. Remembering, she says, "Although I was in pain, I was able to complete the play and none guessed how badly I had been injured until the play was over. The next performance was in Sikkim. Instead of standing or moving on stage, I performed the entire play while sitting in a chair. It was a huge success and spectators did not guess there was anything amiss. Theatre gives you that connect with the audience and also that flexibility."

Kali Naatakam discusses the revival of a ritual in a village where it was banned 50 years ago because a woman killed the man playing Darika.

Sajitha says, "What follows next is not a part of the ritual as history repeats itself and the man enacting Darika is killed." She gives is a modern day twist, "The roles played by each is examined and the play concludes by exhorting viewers to empower themselves to battle injustice."

Kali Naatakam will be staged in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday as part of the National Theatre Festival. Madathil says it was a "mix of nostalgia and concern about the state of women today" and that's what motivated her to write it.

Sajitha Madathil is an Indian film and theatre actress. Her performance in Joy Mathew's feature film Shutter (2012) won her the State film award for best second actress. She is Deputy Secretary of the Sangeet Natak Akademi New Delhi (Academy of Music and Dance, India), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. She appeared in the feature films Shutter in 2012, in Adimadhyantham (Beginning, Middle and End) in 2011, and in Shalini Usha Nair's feature film Akam (The Interior) in 2011. Madathil has actively working in Kerala Theatre from 1987 onwards. She participated in more than 20 productions as an actress, and also directed two solo performance and wrote 3 plays, Matsyaganddhi, Chanki Chankaran Family reality Show and Mother's Day.

Sajitha Madathil was working as Deputy Secretary, Sangeet Natak Akademi New Delhi(Academy of Music and Dance, India, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India) till 2014. She has also worked as the Deputy Director, Kerala Chalachithra Academy(Academy of Motion Pictures, Kerala State), Documentation Officer/Documentary Producer, Other Media Communications, New Delhi and Producer, Kairali TV, India. She is also a Lecturer cum theatre expert at National Institute of Integrated learning and management, New Delhi.

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Photo Credit: Shobha Menon

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