Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair is a performer of Kathakali, who has practiced the art form for more than seven decades.[1]
He owes the purity of his style to his legendary guru Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon, his only teacher in his entire career. Both hail from Vellinezhi, which is still known for churning out a lot of Kathakali artistes, in Palakkad district.[2] Ramankutty Nair had served in his alma mater, Kerala Kalamandalam, and went on to become its principal.
Born in 1929, Ramankutty Nair hailed from a family with no Kathakali pedigree. But Ravunni Menon, a resident tutor at the renowned Olappamanna Mana (a mansion of the upper-caste Nambudiris) was an overarching presence in the cultural scene of the village, and soon little Ramankutty too fell under his spell. At Kerala Kalamandalam, where he subsequently mastered the art, Ramankutty Nair later sculpted out several disciples, the most prominent among them being Kalamandalam Gopi besides Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody, M.P.S. Namboodiri, Balasubramanian and the late K. Gopalakrishnan.[3] Many of the younger generation Kathakali artistes from Kalamandalam, like Soman and Shanmughan, too have had Ramankutty Nair as their guru for advanced training. (He retired as principal of Kalamandalam in 1985). Currently, he is the chairman of Gandhi Seva Sadan, or Sadanam Kathakali Akademi as it is better known. Still active as an artiste, the master has performed across Kerala, besides having graced stages in the rest of India and several countries of the world.
The generally reticent Ramankutty Nair, who has penned an autobiography named Thiranottam, is a winner of the coveted Padma Bhushan award of the Government of India. Renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has made an eponymous documentary on Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair.[4] of Kathakali, and is a film by the same name on him by Adoor Gopalakrishnan.[5][6]
The master lives in his native Vellinezhi with his wife Saraswati. On May 15, 2009, he celebrated his 'satabhishekam' (84th birthday) amid fanfare in the nearest town of Cherpulassery.