Kathakali is emotive as well as narrative in nature and its recitals are generally very long. This form of dance is usually performed in the temples. The dancers encompass dance with dialogue and try to bring myth and legend to life. This dance form is accompanied by drums and vocalists. The dancers have such strong convictions about the characters they play that they even swap identities with the legends. Traditionally the performance begins after sunset and continues till late in the night. Sometimes, it takes the whole night for one performance to be complete. Nowadays, due to shortage of time, it isn't rare to see performances as short as three hours or even lesser.

Kathakali has three groups of performers, including actor/dancers, vocalists and percussionists. Without one another is not possible. The actor or dancers play a variety of roles, including those of kings, gods, demons, heroines, animals, priests, etc. Each role has a particular style of makeup and costume as its code. Hand gestures or mudras, along with extensive facial expressions and eye movements, are used by the actors to convey their dialogs to the audience. The legend is narrated in the voice of the vocalists. The instruments consist of cymbals and 3 types of drums - cena, edakka and maddalam, with each of the drum producing a distinct sound, used by the third group (of percussionists).