Woman transforming Kattaikootha for global warming

The stage is set as it has been for years, with music, colorful costumes and dramatic dialogue. However, there are no demons to slay or kingdoms to defend. Instead, the story revolves around an invisible enemy that people all over Tamil Nadu know all too well: heat blisters.

It’s an unlikely story for Kattaikootha, a centuries-old Tamil folk theater that has long drawn on the Mahabharata and other epics. But for Thilagavathi Palani, using the art form to talk about contemporary issues is nothing new. Over the years, she has staged plays about anemia, leprosy, gender equality and other social issues.

More than two decades ago, the 36-year-old woman from Kalavai Koot Road in Ranipet became one of the first women to perform professionally in Kattaikooth, breaking into an art form that had long remained the preserve of men. Starting Tuesday, Sri Thilagam Kattaikkuttu Kuzhu will premiere the show at Vedavalli Vidyalaya, Ranipet, and then tour seven schools across Ranipet and Tiruvannamalai — districts that regularly experience the highest temperatures in Tamil Nadu.

The troupe has 13 members, including five professional artists and five schoolchildren trained in Kattaikooth by Thilagavathi. She believes that by involving children on stage, the message becomes more engaging. “When students see a performance by children of a similar age, the connection is stronger,” she says.

The production was developed over six months in collaboration with Asar, a climate and education non-governmental organization (NGO). Born into a lower-income family as the eldest of five daughters, Thilagavathi first met Kattaikoothu through her uncle who taught the traditional theater form. She was the only girl among the boys who learned art in her village.

In 2002, she joined the Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam in Kancheepuram, where she trained under the renowned Kattaikoothu exponent P. Rajagopal. After eight years of rigorous training and a two-year apprenticeship, she became one of the first Kattaikoothu performers in a tradition that had been played exclusively by men for generations. “It gave me confidence,” she says.

Since then, she has continued to expand the possibilities of Kattaikooth, guided by the belief that art should not only be a means of livelihood but also a means of social change.

After moving to Chennai, she became involved in social work with fishermen, women and children and also worked with the Katradi Trust, founded by dancer and social worker Sangeeta Isvaran. Through her work, she was approached by Asar for a series on the environment through kooth.

“Giving Voice to Dying Discourses”

Thilagavathi rejects the idea that Kattaikoothu is a dying art form. “That’s a misconception, especially in cities,” he says. “Come to the villages during the festival season and you will see how it is still alive. Kattaikoothu is not a dying art form. It gives voice to dying discourses.”

Asar scientists shared articles and materials explaining climate change and the effects of rising temperatures on people’s health and livelihoods. Thilagavathi said the examples come from different parts of the world. “But as I read them, I realized that the same things were happening around me,” she says. She recalled the expansion of the Arcot-Cheyyar bypass, where hundreds of trees on the roadside were felled to make way. “Now the heat is unbearable,” he says.

At a time when she was reading reports of elderly people succumbing to extreme heat and studies linking high temperatures to adverse pregnancy outcomes, her sister tragically miscarried. While Thilagavathi doesn’t attribute her sister’s loss to the heat, the experience has made the issue deeply personal. “I started thinking about how to portray the loss and human impact of climate change on stage,” she says.

This became the basis of Veppathin Veriyattam. The play follows the lives of children struggling to learn in overheated classrooms, women cooking in tin-roofed houses and outdoor workers enduring dangerous temperatures. One of the characters in the play is veppam (heat) itself. “I wanted people to look at heat from a different perspective. I even wanted the audience to feel sorry for heat, because it’s not a villain in itself. What we did to the environment made it that way,” she adds.

Published – 28 Jul 2026 01:16 IST