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.
2 hours The hero of the play Arjuna's Penance or Arjuna's Tapas is the handsome Arjuna. Vyasa meets the Pandavas in the forest. He advises Dharma (Yudhisthira) to send his younger brother Arjuna to obtain Siva's Pasupata weapon by performing tapas or penance. The Pandavas will need this divine weapon in the forthcoming war with the Kauravas.
On his way towards Mount Kailasa, Arjuna — dressed as an ascetic with long entangled hair, wearing a tiger-skin, his body covered with white ashes — is confronted with a number of temptations, which are meant to test his ascetic resolve. Vishnu appears in his female form as Mohini, the Enchantress, who tries in vain to seduce Arjuna. Thereafter, Arjuna encounters the forest-temptress Kantuperanti, whose jungle he happens to trespass. Not bound by the customs of the social world, she openly fancies him. Arjuna, firm in his self-constraint, refuses to respond to her desire. Kantaperanti lies to her ferocious husband, Perantan, that Arjuna has tried to rape her. During the fight that follows Arjuna almost kills the irate Perantan, but hearing the fervent pleas of his wife spares his live.
Tamil Nadu Kattaikkuttu Kalai Valarchi Munnetra Sangam & Kattaikkuttu Youth Theatre School
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