Soyuzmultfilm 1981
Many centuries ago, on the southwestern coast of India,
in Travancore, a special art of dance arose named Kathakali.
The most important place in it is held by gestures.
They convey the wisdom of the ancient people more expressively than words.
The Speaking Hands of Travancore
Who are you?
Who am I?
What does this world mean?
What efforts must be made
to preserve it?
The ancients, too, prayed to their gods.
And they saw that Shiva
with the movements of his divine dance
recreates and renews the world.
People started to imitate it.
O fingers that speak,
O hands that created all things on Earth,
Is that not why Shiva is many-handed?
O dance of the gesture,
the dance of Kathakali,
that transmits the beauty of the world
and the death
of man and gods.
The legend says that
Travancore arose from the ocean after the battle
between gods and demons.
Mahisha,
the leader of the dark forces,
caught the gods unprepared
and the sky crashed down to earth.
The stars fell.
Then, from the darkness,
from a fiery spiral,
to allow the quivering thread of life to continue,
a multi-armed goddess appeared -
the ferocious female warrior Kali -
and rushed like a wild panther
onto the miasmatic,
swirling demons.
But then, covering the roar of battle,
there was a cry from the earth:
STOP!
You trample me like a herd of mindless elephants
You trample me!
If you don't stop your wars,
I will die.
Then silence spread over the world!
Such silence
that it was possible to hear
the blossoming
of the lotus sprout
and the formidable warrior became
more tender than a nursing doe.
It does not do for mothers to hold weapons in their arms.
O Earth!
Now your protection and defence
shall be my beloved son
Parashurama.
Remember, my son:
in the direst hour,
when you feel your strength fading,
you must overcome yourself.
Only after defeating yourself
will you be able to surmount Evil
and serve Good.
Then, all of a sudden,
disturbing the peace,
again did the forces of Evil
hammer the earth,
raising waves
and gnawing at the shore.
And the young man saw that he was weakening
and he called out:
O mother goddess! and you, Earth!
Do you hear me?
Then give me the strength to overcome myself
and let my axe
serve Good.
That is how, according to legend,
arose
the flowery coast
of Travancore.
And the air above the earth is fresh and bright,
and beauty like a butterfly flutters.
But the eternal questions remain:
Who are you?
Who am I?
What does this world mean?
What efforts must be made
to preserve it?
screenwriter M. Rodionov director Vladimir Pekar
art director Tatyana Kolyusheva composer Eduard Artemyev
poem by Aleksandr Timofeyevskiy narrator Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy
camera Kabul Rasulov sound Boris Filchikov
animators Yuriy Batanin, Galina Zebrova, Anatoliy Abarenov
script editor Pyotr Frolov montage Natalya Stepantseva
other film crew Tatyana Lytko, Lyudmila Biryukova, Dmitriy Anpilov, Nikolai Mitrokhin
consultants G. Das Gupta, N. Krasnodembskaya production director Lyubov Butyrina
The End Soyuzmultfilm, 1981
Subs - Eus (2023), rev. Niffiwan (2024)