CHENNAI: The month of Margazhi is here and what associations come to mind, other than the appreciation of various means of art such as carnatic music, dance and theatre. And what better season to celebrate it other than margazhi, a celebration of joy, the monsoon and more?
Bharat Kalachar, in association with Kalpathi set off the 44-day festival extravaganza titled 28th Margazhi Mahotsav, at the Sri YGP Auditorium on Sunday. The festival will come to a close on January 16.
Kalpathi S Suresh presided over the inaugural, while C V Chandrasekhar was the chief guest. Suhasini Maniratnam was the guest of honour. The event saw the felicitation of 23 artistes in the field of arts and the conferment of various titles. The Natya Kaladhar Award was given to Radhika Sarath Kumar, Gana Kaladhar to Vani Jayaram and Viswa Kala Bharathi Award to Bombay Jayashri and Priyadarshini Govind.
Other awards that were presented were Gnana Kala Bharathi, which is the MN Subramanian Memorial Award; to Trichur Ramachandran, Acharya Kala Bharathi to A Janardhanan, Kala Seva Bharathi to Cleveland Sundaram and Malathi Rangarajan, Nadaga Kala Bharathi to Bombay Gnanam, Sangeetha Kala Bharathi to Janardhan Mitta, Laya Kala Bharathi to Madras A Kannan and the Natya Sangeetha Kala Bharathi to Nandini Anand, T Sasidhar and Adyar Gopinath.
Apart from these, the Yuva Kala Bharathi Awards were presented to nine young artistes for their contribution to vocal music, violin, mridangam and bharathanatyam. Twenty-three artistes were honoured with the awards at the function. Bharat Kalachar’s annual souvenir was released by Suhasini.