Article - On Mohiniyattam's ascent - Mythili Maratt Anoop

Mohiniyattam, like other theatrical arts of Kerala, has been dramatic, but the real-life drama that unfolded in the past few days has catapulted Mohiniyattam to the segment of main/ hard news from being perhaps a byte in the arts and culture segment. Mohiniyattam became the hotbed of controversy with the instance of a faculty from Kerala Kalamandalam making derogatory comments on the gender and skin colour of an established male artiste, teacher, and scholar, Dr R LV Ramakrishnan and the whole community of Mohiniyattam dancers standing up for him on the social media. Numerous opinions and support writing surfaced in solidarity with him. An issue such as this, in our context where there is growing sensitivity to issues relating to gender, caste, beauty norms (I wish, I could add religion too), is a sure shot way to stir up a hornet's nest, which is a good thing for the dance and the artists involved, as ultimately, all news is, after all, good news. In the past few days, I had several friends, family who had no stakes in Mohiniyattam, sharing video clips of the canonical interview, and opinion pieces with me on whatsapp, and that vouches for the ability that such issues have in generating public interest. Mohiniyattam has certainly outrun the 'Mohini', the practice of several male Mohiniyattam artistes and academic discourse has reflected this turn for more than a decade, and now the debate has found a loud finale in the public realm of social media.

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