Pacha Vesham: The Noble Green Hero of Kathakali
If you have seen one image of Kerala, there is a good chance it was a Kathakali face: bright green skin, red lips, eyes lined in black and a stiff white frame around the jaw. That face has a name. It is the Pacha Vesham, and it is the one we chose for our Pacha Vesham collection.
What is Kathakali?
Kathakali is Kerala's classical dance-drama, which took shape in the 17th century. Performers tell stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas without speaking a word. Everything is carried by hand gestures (mudras), facial expression and eye movement, backed by singers and the chenda, maddalam and chengila. Traditional performances begin after dusk and can run through the night.
Why the make-up matters
In Kathakali, the make-up (vesham) tells the audience who a character is before they move. There are five main types:
- Pacha (green) for noble, virtuous heroes such as Krishna, Arjuna and Nala.
- Kathi (knife) for proud, arrogant characters like Ravana, with a red knife-shaped mark on the cheeks.
- Thadi (beard), in red, white or black, for demons, hunters and figures like Hanuman.
- Kari (black) for forest-dwellers and demonesses.
- Minukku (radiant) for women, sages and Brahmins, in a soft yellow-orange.
The Pacha Vesham is framed by the chutti, a white border traditionally built up from rice paste and paper, which makes the face glow under the old oil lamps.
Our Pacha Vesham design
We kept the character's calm, noble expression and the full chutti frame, and set it against clean space so the green and red do the talking. It is available as a men's oversized tee, a men's round neck tee, a women's hoodie and more.
Want to see Kathakali live? Kerala Kalamandalam in Cheruthuruthy, founded in 1930 by the poet Vallathol Narayana Menon, still trains artists and holds regular performances.
