The untold story of women who changed Kerala’s theatre and took centre stage
The Lost History of Women in Kerala Theatre
When women first stepped onto the Malayalam stage, they were meant to act, not author. They could embody emotion, not ideology. But art, as it often does, refused to obey. And from the footlights of Kerala’s theatre emerged a quiet revolution, one that rewrote the rules of art.
In For the Love of Art, Sajitha Madathil rewrites the forgotten script of Kerala’s stage, a place where women once weren’t even allowed to stand, let alone speak. For centuries, theatre was a man’s world: men wrote, men directed, and when a woman’s role appeared, men played her too.
“For a long time, men wrote and directed; women acted. You performed what was authored by men,” Madathil notes.
But what if women became the authors? What if history was told through their eyes, their scripts, their struggles? Through the stories of women actors, writers, and theatre workers, she uncovers a hidden lineage, connecting art with activism, performance with protest. It’s not a linear retelling, but a living archive, one that connects the social, cultural, and political threads that have shaped Kerala’s theatre.
Translated with precision and grace by Jayasree Kalathil, the book is a tribute to women as “rightful creators and owners of cultural capital.” Kalathil captures both the rhythm of the prose and the pulse of Kerala’s theatre world, one where art was never just performance, but protest.
The book is both a correction and a confrontation. It asks a searing question: what happens when women begin to author not just their performances, but the very history of performance itself? Told through fragments, memories, and rediscovered histories, the book mirrors the fractured way in which women’s artistic contributions have been recorded—or, more often, erased. Yet from these fragments, Sajitha builds something whole: a narrative of defiance, resilience, and reclamation.
For the Love of Art is not simply a history book; it’s the story of countless unnamed artists who refused to disappear, who performed through prejudice, who endured criticism, who turned shame into strength and made art their language of freedom.
Praise for The Love of Art
‘As an actor, I found Sajitha Madathil’s history of women in Malayalam theatre immensely useful in understanding the complex fabric of our social structure, from which women actors emerged to follow their dreams. In Jayasree Kalathil’s translation, For the Love of Art is a powerful testament to the courage and tenacity of women in the acting profession who battled—and continue to battle—for their rights’
—Revathi, actor and director
‘For the Love of Art’ is a fascinating and radical intervention in cultural history that transforms the story of theatre in Kerala, not only by filling gaps and remedying omissions but also by consciously rewriting it with women at the centre as subjects and agents.
—Udaya Kumar, former professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
‘Sajitha Madathil’s For the Love of Art is a compelling work that unearths the forgotten histories of women in Kerala’s theatre. With great eloquence, Madathil weaves together lives, stories and performance histories to create a tapestry that is both poignant and urgent. This book, in Jayasree Kalathil’s English translation, is a most welcome addition to theatre scholarship.
—Anuradha Kapur, teacher and theatre practitioner
About the Author
Sajitha Madathil is a theatre and film actor, writer and feminist activist. She is one of the founding members of the drama troupe Abhinetri and of the Women in Cinema Collective. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Kerala State Film Award (for Shutter, 2012), the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama (Arangile Matsyagandhikal, 2019) and the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award (Malayala Nataka Sthree Charithram, 2010). In 2020, she received the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award for contributions to drama. Her publications include M.K. Kamalam (2010), Aranginte Vakabhedangal (2013), Neelakkuyil: Miss Kumariyude Chalachitrajeevitham (2020) and a memoir, Vellivelichavum Veyilnaalangalum (2025).
Jayasree Kalathil is the author of The Sackclothman and has translated seven books from Malayalam to English. Her translations have won the Crossword Book Jury Award (twice), the JCB Prize for Literature, the V. Abdulla Memorial Translation Award and the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year award. She was also shortlisted for the American Literary Translators Association’s National Translation Award in Prose.
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