Vadakke Manalath Govindan Nair popularly known as Kalamandalam Gopi, is an Indian dancer who is an exponent of the classical dance-drama style known as Kathakali.

[1] He began his career on the Kathakali stage in the 1960s and 1970s, but he had been appointed as a teacher at his alma mater, the Kerala Kalamandalam in 1957, by poet laureate Vallathol Narayana Menon, who had founded the school.

[2] Gopi is known for the romantic and dramatic portrayal of the virtuous pachcha roles in Kathakali, notable among them being Nalan, Karnan and Rukmangadan.

He has also played the choreographically denser roles of Bheeman (in the stories Kalyanasougandhikam or Bakavadham), Arjuna (Subhadraharanam) and Dharmaputrar (that's Yudhishthira in Kirmeeravadham).

That was followed by his initiation into Kathakali by a leading guru called Thekkinkattil Ramunni Nair at the Koodallur Mana (a mansion of an upper-caste Namboodiri family) near Kothachira.