"(Guru Mani Madhava Chakiar) began playing the dual role of Parvati and Shiva...sat on a wooden chair...I have never ever seen a Parvati so exquisitely beautiful. I have never seen a Shiva so handsome and so cunning. I sat there and wept as if I were alone in the presence of God. I then realized what theatre was all about — the falsehood of that old man made me arrive at a state where inhibitions and convictions, all became so fluid and beautiful. And this vision has remained with me always"
- Dr. Vijaya Mehta (Executive Director, National Center for Performing Arts- Bombay, acclaimed Indian theatre personality) about her experience of watching 72 year old Guru's Abhinaya of ParvativirahaMani Madhava Chakyar
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"The eyes of Kudiyattam has closed forever...the great lineage of Sanskrit theatre is adversely hit by the loss of this genious"
- K. P. Narayana Pisharoty (Kutiyattam scholar) in 1990, on the death of Guru Mani Madhava Chakiar.Mani Madhava Chakyar
"To Guru Mani Madhava Chakyar, Kutiyattam was more than art, it was life itself"
- Mani Madhava Chakkyar: The Master at Work (film) - Kavalam N. Panickar, 1994Mani Madhava Chakyar
“No one is like the Emperor of Abhinaya- Mani Madhava Chakyar, and there won't be any” - Prof. Maria Christopher Byrski (first foreigner disciple of Guru and Kutiyattam), Department of Indology, Warsaw University, 1987
Mani Madhava Chakyar
My being Jewish does not inform the things I do, necessarily. 'Exodus' is a wonderful piece, no matter what religion you are. 'The Shiva Club,' which is a movie I am attempting to make sometime soon, is about crashing a shiva, if you will. A couple of comics crash a shiva. I could have, I suppose, made it an Irish wake, but the shiva I was more familiar with.
William Shatner
"Mani Madhava Chakyar's forte was Satwikabhinaya. Endowed with expressive eyes; that can speak a thousand moods and a countenance that can reflect the range of human emotions in its entirety, Mani Madhava Chakkiar was the master at work"
- Mani Madhava Chakkyar: The Master at Work (film), 1994Mani Madhava Chakyar
Chakyar, Mani Madhava
Chalabi, Ahmed
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