Chithirai Festival: ‘Deiveega Natanam’ losing sheen, could fade away soon

TIRUCHY: Deiveega Natanam performances based on religious epics, which used to entertain the people right from the Sangam era, are feared to be a thing of the past as the interest of the audience has dwindled.

As a result, the ancient art form has been gradually fading away, and so the people involved in performing this art have appealed to the government to help them promote the dance drama with its current variant.

The artistes involved in the Deiveega Natanam have to be well-versed in singing, dialogue delivery and dancing, and the artistes usually inherit the talent from their elders.

Once a highly venerated event, it has lost its sheen, and these performances are witnessed in the temple festivals, but now, they too have lost their presence due to the change of interest among the people.

“We perform as gods and goddesses with the traditional way of make-up that our forefathers taught us. We play the role of Lords Vinayakar, Murugan, Amman, Sivan, Parvathi, Kali and Karuppasamy. Only males do the characters of female gods, and it takes hours to finish the makeup to bring back a look alike,” said A Mathiyazhagan, a Deiveega Natanam performer from Thanjavur.

Mathiyazhagan further said that the make-up for the Goddess Kali is time-consuming with heavy-duty fittings, like extra hands. The artistes should be ready at least an hour before and carry along all the decoratives on them until they finish the day’s programme.

Meanwhile, AKR Ravichandar, president, Cholar Kalai Mandran, Thanjavur, said, the people like the performances of Kali and Karuppasamy more than the other roles.

“But the preparation for the character is very tough and time-consuming. Only a few people are involved in the performances across the state, but due to the intrusion of cinematic dance performance, preferably by many organisers, the number of programmes has been declining, and we fear this art form might become extinct shortly,” Ravichandar worried.

He also said that each programme would last for around four hours, but the wage each performer gets is between Rs 2,000 and 3,000, from which a major portion is spent on make-ups alone.

“We appeal to the state government to initiate steps immediately to revive these rare traditional folk performances,” Ravichandran urged.

Also Read:
- Chithirai Festival: Folk artistes face heat as cinematic dance gains preference

- Chithirai Festival: Namma Ooru Thiruvizha instils hope among folk artistes