‘Malai koothu’, the street play of Malaiyali tribes in Dharmapuri, Tirupathur districts Premium

Experience the cultural richness of 'malai koothu' in the Yelagiri Hills, a traditional temple dance form rooted in mythology.

In the sprawling landscaped compound of the Kadavu Nachiamman Temple of Nilavur in the Yelagiri Hills, a ‘malai koothu’ on Haribalan-Sivabalan Sandai was about to open. On that new moon night, the audience had arrived for the temple festival from as far as Jolarpet. They would stay up till dawn. “Here comes ‘Boppan’ for the opening Act.” ‘Boppan’, the buffoon, makes an entry in a jazzy orange outfit, prancing up and down to the blaring but often indiscernible vocals. The buffoon jumps, gets whipped, pretends to scare children seated on the ground, gets whipped again.

As the night advanced, a section of the audience dozes off with banners for blankets, while a few elders keep themselves warm, crouched beneath woollen blankets. An artist hurls profanities at Maradhanda Asuran, causing giggles, and falls on the lap of an old woman in the audience after a pretence-chase by Maradhanda Asuran. A ploy to keep the audience awake on that chilly night.

Haribalan-Sivabalan Sandai opens with Maradhanda Asuran and his daughter Sillingi, and Sillingi’s sons Haribalan and Sivabalan conceived of a boon from Lord Siva, according to mythology. Sillingi, played by an old man draped in a sari and a wig, comes out to narrate her story. Sillingi’s tearful monologue is interrupted when a visibly moved old woman, gets up and pins a currency note to Sillingi’s sari at the shoulder.

This would be the last act for this season from the Tamil month of Thai to Aadi.

‘Malai koothu’, a form of ‘therukoothu’ (street play), a seemingly plebeian art, is culturally moored in the lives of the inhabitants of the hills — the Malaiyali tribes of Dharmapuri and the Javadhu and Yelagiri Hills in Tirupathur. It is also an expression of social cohesion and is primarily performed as a temple dance form in the hills.

“We perform ‘koothu’ for temple festivals, births and deaths, and marriages,” says K. Govindasamy, former president of the Adhanur panchayat comprising 14 villages of the Yelagiri Hills. The 75-year-old is a veteran ‘koothu’ artist. He runs the Kadhavu Nachiamman Koothu Kuzhu that trains artists at Nilavur village. “We did not allow film songs to contaminate the form,” he says.

In the hills, the performers are high pitched so as to reach a larger assembly of audience while performing with no mikes, something that the artists from the plains find hard to emulate, says A. Thirumalaisami, an artist and researcher from the family of ‘therukoothu’ artists in the plains in Krishnagiri.