The Tamil Nadu Kattaikkuttu Kalai Valarchi Munnetra Sangam is a grassroots organization that promotes the cultural and economic rights of professional Kattaikkuttu performers. It was established in 1990 by a group of seventeen performers belonging to different Kattaikkuttu theatre companies. At present the Sangam has more than two hundred members who live in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu and the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. The Kattaikkuttu Sangam runs the Kattaikkuttu Youth Theatre School, which provides professional Kattaikkuttu training to underprivileged, rural children in combination with basic education. The Sangam provides a framework within which performers can discuss their professional demands and aspirations. It produces new plays, organizes theatre and other creative workshops, in addition to an annual Kattaikkuttu Festival.
The Kattaikkuttu Sangam is the organizer of the Kuttu Festival 2005 through which it wants to celebrate, together with other performers and its regular audiences, the fact that the organization exists fifteen years. For this special occasion a group of thirty-five performers who act in the nine different Kattaikkuttu performances put up by the Sangam, in addition to co-organizing the event. They special performance group represents actors and musicians drawn from two important Kattaikkuttu styles, that from around Kanchipuram-Cheyyar and that found in the Gingee-Vilupuram area.
Duryodhana calls upon his advisors, the second oldest and vilest of his ninety-nine brothers, Sakuni, his maternal uncle and brother of Gandhari (the mother of the Kauravas), and Karna, his loyal friend ever since he appointed him as King of Anga for a top-level consultation. He wants to know how he can defeat the Pandavas, who through the royal sacrifice and display of wealth have claimed supremacy over all other kings, and how he can undo the humiliation brought about by Draupadi who laughed at him in public when he slipped and fell down at the Pandavas' court. Karna proposes to go to war. Sakuni says that the Pandavas cannot be slain so easily. He advises Duryodhana to invite the them to Hastinapura and lure Dharmaraja (Yudhisthira) into a treacherous game of dice during which he will win everything from them. Vidura is called upon and summoned to carry Duryodhana's letter of invitation to the Pandavas. The Pandavas receive Vidura with all respects. Dharmaraja decides that an invitation from their relatives cannot be turned down, in spite of the many objections of his brothers who believe that the invitation may be a trick. The Pandavas leave for Hastinapura.
Duryodhana invites Dharmaraja for a game of dice 'just for the fun of it'. Dharma, known for his weakness of gambling, is unable to withstand the request and agrees. First he stakes his pearl necklace - symbol of his sovereignty. Sakuni, who plays on Duryodhana's behalf, cheats Dharmaraja by using black magic and wins the game. In the following rounds of the game Dharmaraja stakes and loses his armies, city, palace, his four younger brothers and, finally, their common wife, Draupadi. Duryodhana commands the Kattiyakkaran to bring Draupadi from the women's quarters to the court. The clown returns with Draupadi's famous question: did Dharma bet her before or after himself? Only when this question is answered will she come forth. Furiously, Duryodhana orders Duhsasana to drag the woman in by the hair. Duhsasana goes to the women's quarters and summons Draupadi to accompany him to Duryodhana's court. She refuses. After a heated exchange of words, Duhsasana pulls her by her hair.
Duhsasana swings Draupadi about the stage, throwing her to the ground where she rolls over and over, her untied hair swirling in the dust. Insults are exchanged. When Gandhari appears on the scene, Draupadi laments to her and, addressing her as 'mother-in-law' (mami), asks her to restrain her son. But Gandhari, in a sarcastic image of 'everyday-live' mothers-in-law, chooses to leave her to the mercy of her cruel and violent son. The hair-pulling continues and finally Duhsasana drags Draupadi before the court.
Draupadi laments bitterly. She appeals for help to the elders in the court, but all except for Vikarna, the youngest of the Kauravas who objects to Draupadi's humiliation, remain silent. Duryodhana orders Duhsasana to disrobe Draupadi in front of the enslaved Pandavas whose royal ornaments and garments have been removed. Draupadi, standing on the actor's bench and separated from Duhsasana by the curtain, lifts her folded hands in a fervent prayer to Lord Krishna. Duhsasana reaches below the curtain and starts pulling off Draupadi's sari. But in spite of his enormous efforts he is unable to disrobe her, because Krishna provides her with an endless quantity of cloth protecting her modesty. Duhsasana collapses exhausted and possessed amidst the saris that litter the assembly hall. Witnessing the miracle of her undestroyable chastity, Bhishma, one of the Kauravas' elders, remarks that Draupadi must be a Goddess indeed.
Unable to fulfil his revenge to the full Duryodhana orders Draupadi to come and sit on his lap. This command enrages Draupadi. She swears that Bhima will hit Duryodhana exactly at the place where he has told her to sit down: until she has smeared her hair with the blood from the slain Duryodhana's wounds she will not tie it up again. The other four Pandavas follow with their own vows to kill members of the Kaurava-clan.
Realizing the desperate turn of events, the blind and feeble Dhrtarashtra, father of the Kauravas, tries to undo the vows, saying that his sons 'did not know what they were doing'. However, Duryodhana and Sakuni refuse to listen. They decide that the losers must be banned to the forest for twelve years, followed by one year during which they must live incognito. When somebody recognizes them they will be banished to the forest for a next period of twelve years. Draupadi does not accept her slavery, because she says she was staked unjustly. She insists on a final round of dice to undo all the earlier ones. In some versions she plays herself with Duryodhana; in other versions she orders Dharmaraja to play again staking his puniyam or merit (the virtues accumulating from the good deeds done during one's life). This final game Dharma wins, because at Draupadi's behest, he invokes Krishna. Bound by dharma to honour the agreement with the Kauravas, the Pandavas depart to the forest to begin their thirteen years of banishment.
Tamil Nadu Kattaikkuttu Kalai Valarchi Munnetra Sangam & Kattaikkuttu Youth Theatre School
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