Kerala classical theatre festival in Assam

A three-day festival of Kerala's classical theatre, Kutiyattam, with an antiquity of more than 2000 years in the country, will be held in two places in Assam today.
The festival, comprising three plays - Surppanakham, Jatayuvadhakan and Draupadi - will be staged simultaneously at Guwahati and Barpeta, festival organiser K K Gopalkrishnan told reporters here.
The plays will be staged at Srimanta Sankar Krishti Bikash Samiti Namghar in Guwahati and Madhavdev Shastra Adhyanagar at Barpeta Sattra, he said.
Kutiyattam, the only surviving Sanskrit tradition of India, is believed to be the most classical of all performing art traditions and literally the word means "acting together".

Traditionally, the right to perform Kutiyattam solely rests with two particular communities called Chakiars and Nambiars with the latter assisting in drumming and in the green-room.
Kutiyattam is predominantly performed in the 'Koothambalam' or the temple theatre built inside the temple precinct.
Dadasaheb Phalke award winning filmmaker Adoor Gopalkrishnan had made a documentary on the art form for UNESCO which hailed it as a 'masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity'.