ABSTRACT
Roar is one of the few vocal expressions of the kathakali actor, and a roar is the vocal entry of an antihero, a villain or a demoness. Roar is highly significant in the history of women in kathakali because it established an intrinsic relationship with the performance career of the first-known woman kathakali performer, Kartyayani, in 1719. Roar is a recurrent point of reference in the conversations of female kathakali performers. The female kathakali will stride somewhere between tears and roars. Performers roar differently and therefore the roar of a woman will be a female roar, not a male roar. If the star "roarer", the late Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, roared remarkably differently to the late Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, then a female "roarer" can also roar her own distinct female roar. Since kathakali has historically been patriarchal in approach, female kathakali performers appear to respond to the situation by appropriating the most theatrically male characteristic, such as the "roar", for themselves.
