Kathakali : The temple art form of Kathakali was developed around 2nd century. Kathakali (story play) performance is the dramatised form of a play base on Hindu epics. In Kathakali, most of the themes are covered - righteousness and evil, frailty and courage, poverty and prosperity, war and peace.

Drummers and singers accompany the actors. The scrip is vocalised by the singers, but it's the performers who actually tell the story with movements, mudras (hand gestures) and facial expressions. Normaly, temple grounds are the venue and the play will lasts the whole night.

Preparation for the performance is lengthy, fantastic costumes and paints are applied on the face of the dancer, highly decorated headpieces are fitted, small seeds placed in the eyes to redden the whites. The Kathakali characters are grouped as -

Pucca - The heroic, royal and divine creatures such a Vishnu or Rama. The makeup consists of green faces (symbolising heroism and righteousness) with large crown headgear.

Katti - The demons and villains such as Ravana, the evil king who abducted Sita. They are also green indicating their high position, but a red mark and white knobs on their noses and foreheads indicates their evil nature.

Tati - The wild creatures, wearing artificial red, black or white beards ('tati'). Hanuman, the monkey god is with white beard, while primitive animals have black beards.

Kari - The demoness, all in black, black beard and huge breasts
(Shurphanaka, Ravana's sister).

Minukku - The servant class, often female, with simple costumes and yellow face paint.