THRISSUR: The Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi has announced the fellowship and awards for the year 2017 on Thursday. Renowned dramatist K M Raghava Nambiar has been selected for the fellowship in theatre, Perumbavoor G Raveendranath for music and Gopinath Muthukad for magic. The fellowship amount has been raised to Rs 50,000 from this year from the previous figure of Rs 30,000.
Nambiar, fondly known as K M R, has been in the field of drama for around seven decades as a play director and scriptwriter. His expertise can be seen in the plays Karmabhoomi, Rajasooyam, Usha sandhya, Maranakkinar, etc. which ruled the amateur and professional drama platforms equally for several years.
As a teacher at Kalyassery Government High School, Nambiar wrote socially relevant plays and raised his concerns over many political and social issues haunting the society.
Known for his songs in the Padmarajan movie Thoovanathumbikal, Raveendranath had earned a respect in the heart of the people in Kerala through soulful numbers. He was awarded the Kerala State Film award for Best Musician for the songs in the movie Innale. He is also famous as a Carnatic musician.
Muthukad, the magic uncle, is the children's favourite these days. He has performed on more than 4,000 stages in the country as well as abroad.
Muthukad stands different by associating social issues with his magic performances thereby taking the art of illusion to another level. He also authored several books like 'Magis-math', 'Magic- What? How?', etc.
The 2017 awards of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi has been announced for 17 artists. Jayaprakash Karyal, Kannur Vasutty, Pradeep Roy and Sandhya Rajendran were selected for the awards in drama. M Narmada and Cherthala R Jayadevan for instrumental musiExpresc, Thamarakkad Govindan Namboothiri for Carnatic music, Vijayan
Poonjar for light music, Pulimath Sreekumar for kadhaprasangam, Kalamandalam Husnabhanu for mohiniyattam, Kalamandalam Mohanakrishnan for ottanthullal, Kalamandalam Oyur Ramachandran for kathakali, Kalamandalam Kanakakumar for koodiyattam, Peruvanam Satheesan Maran for chenda, Kunissery Chandran for madhalam, Kongadu Madhu for thimila and Roy
George Kutty for chavittu natakam are the winners this year. It consists of a prize of 30,000 along with a citation and memento.
Balussery Sarasa, Pala Thankam, Varghese Katiparamban, K V Antony, Manikantan Nair and Madhavan Kunnathara have been selected for the Gurupooja Puraskaram in theatre. Ponkunnam Ravi, Devadas, M Ramakrishnan, Jose Peter and P Krishnan
Attingal were the winners of Gurupooja Puraskaram in music. Kottakal P D Namboothiri for kathakali sangeetham, Muthuppilikadu Chandrasekharan Pilla for kathakali chutti, P K V Ramadas for kathakali vesham, Pallavur Raghavapisharadi for ilathalam and Usha Rajan for kadhaprasangam are the other winners of the award, consisting of Rs 30,000, a citation and a memento.
KSNA secretary N Radhakrishnan Nair said the award distribution ceremony will conducted later.