Kalamandalam Gopi

Who is Kalamandalam Gopi?

Vadakke Manalath Govindan Nair popularly known as Kalamandalam Gopi is an exponent of the classical dance-drama style known as Kathakali. He is from the village of Kothachira in Kerala, southern India and he blends the solid body grammar of the highly stylised Kalluvazhi tradition in which he was groomed with the more flexible, part-realistic, emotion-laden southern style techniques he acquired later in his career. He is often referred to by his fans as Gopiyasan.

He is known for the romantic and dramatic portrayal of the virtuous pachcha roles in Kathakali, notable among them being Nalan, Karnan and Rukmangadan. He is equally adept in essaying the choreographically denser roles like Bheeman, Arjuna and Dharmaputrar. Nair, a Padma Shri awardee, also excels in the yellow-faced pazhuppu roles such as Balabhadra, and has of late also branched out to portray variety roles like the anti-heroic Kathi black-bearded Kaatalan, red-bearded Bali and even the semi-realistic looking Brahmanan in Santanagopalam.