Wayanad collector performs Kathakali arangettam

Wayanad: Despite her busy schedule, Wayanad District Collector A Geetha has found time to balance bureaucratic work with her passion towards ‘Kathakali’ as she performed her ‘arangettam’ (the first performance) at a cultural festival here.

A dancer from her schooldays, Geetha has staged several performances. However, she had a desire to learn Kathakali, a popular Kerala-based art form, and perform it on stage which she fulfilled on Saturday night.

Posted as the district collector last September, Geetha was in news after performing a graceful dance at the marriage ceremony of an inmate of a shelter home in November last year.

The video of Geetha dancing to the song ‘Ghanashyama Vrindaranyam’ from the movie ‘Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal’ had gone viral on social media then.

“Thanks to her passionate commitment to master Kathakali, she could perform it at a popular stage like Valliyoorkavu festival,” an official who witnessed the collector’s performance said.

Geetha enacted the character of ‘Damayanthi’ in ‘Nalacharitham’. Retired District Planning Officer Subhadra Nair and Soil Conservation department official Rathi Sudhir were among the other artists, who participated in the Kathakali performance.

MLAs O R Kelu and T Siddique were among those who were present at the venue.