Historical incidents, the life and adventure of heroes like Charlemagne stories of Alexander were the themes of Chavittu Nadakam in the 16th century. Librettos The stories are mostly the heroic episodes of Bible or great Christian warriors. The play is considered a success if at the end, the stage cave into the pressure of heavy stamping. Royal dresses and ornamental costumes are necessary. Foot stamping dance, fighting and fencing are the essential part of Chavittunadakam.

In these art forms there is a great importance for dance and art. Great stress is laid on the step, which goes in harmony with the songs. The actors sing their lines loudly and with exaggerated gestures stamp with great force on the wooden stage. Though it used to be an open stage performance, in the recent times this is mostly played indoor.

The bell and drum are two instruments used as background score. The whole play is performed through musicals.ĭance and instrumental music are combined in this art form. The performers wear glittering European costumes.

Sometimes the interior of a church is also a venue. Even though some argue that the Chavittu Nadakam is created by Portuguese as they felt cultural emptiness when they arrived at Kerala, there are no evidences supporting this view.Īlso the fact that Chavittu Nadakam uses language for its playback songs and dialogue, suggest that the art form is indigenous in origin.

The reason behind this assumption is that Chavittu Nadakam has a significant European character in its costumes and outfits.īut there are historical evidences that Kerala had connections with the western world well before the arrival of Portuguese. Like many other Indic scripts, it is an alphasyllabary abugida, a writing Jose, C.Ĭhavittu Nadakam is believed to be originated after the arrival of Portuguese to the Kerala shores. Malayalam script is also widely used for writing Sanskrit texts in Kerala. Malayalam script - Wikipedia Malayalam script is a Brahmic script used commonly to write the Malayalam language, which is the principal language of Kerala, India, spoken by 35 million people in the world.

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