THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The 111-day Soorya Festival, said to be the world’s longest cultural fest, will commence on Tuesday. Soorya’s Indian chapter patron and Godrej managing director A Mahendran will inaugurate the festival at Tagore Theatre.
The inaugural function will include a 30-minute special programme featuring 30 artists from Hyderabad. Following this, the inaugural film ‘Atmakatha’ will be screened. The film’s lead actor and noted filmmaker Sreenivasan, producer Pavithram Santhosh, director Premlal and female lead Shafna will be present on the occasion. The inaugural day will also mark the start of the Soorya Film Festival, which will feature 18 films, including national and state award winning films like ‘Kutty Srank’ and ‘Paleri Manickam’.
The film festival, which will conclude on September 30, will be followed by the dance and music festival, drama festival, Ramayanam Mela, ‘Samasya’, religious discourses and other cultural fetes. This year, the festival will introduce two cultural events: a five-day long Carnatic music fest, ‘Sindhu Bhairavi’, and a Ghazal mela.
Besides being the longest festival, Soorya will also set a new record of sorts this year. It will be for the 33rd consecutive year that vocalist Yesudas and danseuse Padma Subramaniam will be participating in the Soorya festival. The fest will conclude on January 10, 2011, at Tagore Theatre with ‘Dwayam’, a stage show directed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy, which will be a tribute to Vaikom Muhammad Basheer.
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