KOCHI: October 4 Sunday will certainly be a special day for Kochiites. A number of rare and little known temple art forms will be staged on the day to honour Sadanam Divakara Marar, a teacher of and an expert in the atypical art forms. Marar will be honoured with a veerasrunkhala at Ernakulathappan Hall, near Eranakluma Siva Temple.
The programmes will begin with a traditional keli by Kshethra Kalapeetom Gopan (chenda), Kshethra Kalapeetom Manoj (maddalam) and Kshethra Kalaapetom Jayan (elathalam) at 9 am. Keli will be followed by kombu pattu which will be led by Kummathu Ramankutty and Vennimala Rajesh with the accompaniment on elathalam by Venu Veliyannoor.
Staging of kurumkuzhal pattu, something very similar to the shehnai, will follow kombu pattu. Panamanna Manoharan will present rare ragas in kurumkuzhal pattu with the accompaniment on chenda by Panamanna Sasi and elathalam by Pallipuram Jayan. A rendition of God’s own music, Sopana Sangeetham, by Poroor Haridas and Poroor Unnikrishnan comes next at 10.45 am.
There will be a staging of parisha vadhyam, a purely ritualistic percussion ensemble. In this traditional orchestration, one can enjoy the unique combination of veekkan chenda (a specially designed drum with loose membranes on two sides of a short cylindrical frame) and thimila. The living legend of temple art forms and the recipient of Pallavoor Puraskaram, Thrikkamburam Krishnankutty Marar, will lead this ritualistic orchestration with veekkan chenda. Other masters like Ooramana Rajendra Marar and Padikkal Ramachandra Kurup will accompany Krishnankutty Marar. Vaikkom Chandran, Ooramana Ajithan and others will accompany on thimila while Thazhathedathu Murali, Odakkali Murali and others will be on elathalam. In the afternoon, renowned nadaswaram maestro Thiruvizha Jayashankar will present a nadaswaram concert with Alapuzha S Vijayakumar and Alapuzha R Karunamoorthy on thavil.
Sadanam Divakara Marar will be welcomed to the venue with panchavadhyam through the eastern gateway of Eranakulam Siva Temple. Vaikkom Chandran will lead the thimila and Arun Warrier will lead maddalam.
This will be followed by the veerasrunkhala conferring ceremony inaugurated by cine actor Babu Namboothiri. Then Divakara Marar will honour his masters, Alankarathu Appu Marar and Cherthala Thankappa Panicker.
Kalamandalam Deemed University Vice Chancellor K G Paulose will present the veerasrunkhala to Sadanam Divakara Marar.
Soon after the ceremonial presentation of veerasrunkhala, a triple thayambaka by Mattannoor Sankaran Kutty and his sons Mattannoor Sreekanth and Mattannoor Sree Raj will be staged. The all-day-long performances will conclude with a colourful staging of Nalacharitham Naalamdivasam kathakali. Sadanam Krishnankutty will play Bahukan and RLV Radhakrishnan and Sadanam Vijayan will come on stage as Damayanthi and Keshini.
The highlight of the programme is the exhibition of more than forty traditional temple percussion instruments and Raga Varnam, a painting exhibition displaying caricatures by renowned nadaswaram maestro Thiruvizha Jayashankar. The Exhibition will begin from 9 am onwards.
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