We missed seeing the infamous Kathakali dancing whilst in Kochi last time and so coming back was a good opportunity to fulfill this. It really was amazing - first you watch them apply their intricate makeup with a tiny hand-held mirror mixing the paints as they go - the idea is that the dancer goes into some sort of meditative state whilst applying the makeup which makes the process really important. They could make it much easier and at least use a larger wall mirror and pre-mixed paint but that is not the idea.
The main idea of the dancing is the movement of the face so that the face becomes a stage and it was quite amusing as the dancers (very old Indian men) demonstrated the rolling of their eyes, twitching of their mouth and head wobbles (we happened to be sitting smack bang in the middle of the theatre at the front and so it made it even weirder as they was staring straight into our eyes - freaky!).
The actors went behind a curtain and came out looking like massively oversized chinese dolls with big skirts and hair! The narrator explained that the Hindu gods are just representations of people's imagination of god, as Hinduism just like any religion worships one god that has no form or figure. Hence all the different Hindu 'gods'. It made for a good evening.
