It is a day before her performance at the New Bombay Keraleeya Samaj Hall in Nerul when we catch Kalamandalam Sindhu for a conversation on the classical set she is bringing to the city as part of the Women’s Theatre Festival on folklore by Keli, a Mumbai-based cultural organisation. Running short on time and high in spirit she takes the initiative to explain the ancient dance form to us, “Koodiyattam is an 1,800-year-old ancient theatre from Kerala that borrows solely from Sanskrit plays for scripting. It was initially a form of dramatised dance worship but later it expanded to the realms of theatre as well. Natyashashtra’s Dasharupakam talks about the dramaturgy of Koodiyattam in detail.”

Kalamandalam Sindhu enacting Sita during a performance of Sreeramacharitham Nangiarkoothu