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The costume of a Kathakali dancer is very elaborate and distinctive. One look at the costume is sufficient to figure out the character that the person is playing. The costumes also vary according to the character. For every genre, there are different types of costumes. i.e. hero, villain, female characters, demons, etc. have different costumes respectively. The makeup includes minutest details and importance is given to each color that has its own significance. The makeup looks more like a mask than the usual touching up of features. The white border is made of rice flour, red is made from vermilion, black is made of soot, etc. Each color has its own significance and symbolizes good and evil characters. Often, tourists who visit the state of Kerala take back clay figurines of the famous Kathakali masks.
Kathakali is performed using hard symbols and intensive footwork. With the help of mudras or the hand poses, a whole episode is portrayed. There are sixty-four basic hand poses that can connote up to five hundred words that are used in Kathakali. While words are expressed by hands, emotions come through eyes. Their various combinations can be used to convey an array of meanings ranging from overview to any detailed explanation.
The music that accompanies the dance is basically Carnatic music. The instruments vary from performance to performance and usually traditional instruments like chenda, idakka and shuddha madalam are used. The most amazing fact about Kathakali is that there is no oral communication between the actors; hence music is used to express emotions. The script is sung by the vocalists and rhythm varies according to the scene