THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The wait for Soorya Festival is over. The biggest art and cultural extravaganza in the state is set to begin on Thursday. Over the next next 111 days the city will witness performances by over 1,500 artists in the country. This time it is special since Soorya is celebrating 40 years of indulging public with art and cultural shows.
Soorya Krishnamoorthy@40
The first programme directed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy was staged at University Senate hall in September 3, 1977. He formed Soorya a few weeks later after the performance and it has now grown into a large cultural organisation spanning 38 countries. Krishnamoorthy introduced the first light and sound show in Malayalam called ‘Veluthampi Dalava’ in 1978. In the same year he created a new theatre combining the finer aspects of drama and light and sound show.
The festival starts with films. Malayalam film directed by Anil Thomas which fetched the national award for Surabhi Lakshmi is the inaugural film and will be screened at 6.45 pm. Surabhi along with other cast of the film will be present during the screening. 26 movies in Malayalam, Tamil, Konkani, Hindi, Kannada,Bengali and Marathi will be screened from September 21 to October 10. The movies will be screened at Tagore theatre and Cobank auditorium from 4.30 onwards. Most days will have two shows, one at 4.30 pm and the other at 7 pm.
Dance and music festival, which will be held between October 1 and October 10, will see top talents in the country performing. It begins with a performance by K J Yesudas, who has been performing since the inaugural edition of the festival. Manju Warrier will perform kuchipudi on October 9. Both the performances will be held at AKG Centre at 6.45 pm. Rest of the performances will be held at Cobank auditorium.
Nityashree Mahadevan and M Jayachandran- Kavalam Sreekumar are the other carnatic vocal performers. Meenakshi Sreenivasan, Rama Vaidyanathan, Priyadarshini Govind, Janaki Rangarajan will perform bharatnatyam. Rajendra Gangani (Kathak), Madhumita Roy and Madhuri Majumdar (kathak-kuchipudi) are also performing. Rajendra Gangani will conduct a workshop on kathak on all the days at Ganeshan in Thycaud.
National theatre festival starts from October 11 and will go on till October 20. Theatre groups from Chennai, Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram will stage their plays. Entry is limited to delegates (Rs100 for non-members). Among the dramas which will be performed at Cobank auditorium at 6.45 pm, include ‘Kalathil Padmini Makal Ammu’, ‘Karnan’, ‘Samudra’, ‘Bombay Tailors’, ‘Yaro Ivar Yaro’, ‘Oru Sangeerthanam pole’ etc.
Hindusthani music concert ‘Jalsa Ghar’ will be held from October 21 to 31 at YMCA auditorium. Gayathri, Manjari, Aparna, Ramesh Narayan, Shahabaz Aman, Umbayi, Anita Sheik, Fayaz Khan, Zia Ul huq, Jitesh and Abhratita Banerji will perform at 6.45 pm.Other highlights of the festival include an international painting exhibition showcasing the works of 20 artists, ‘Parampara,’ a tribute by prominent classical dancers to their teachers, ‘Meet the Masters,’ an exhibition of films by Ompuri, spiritual talks, mohiniyattom festival (December 1 to 5), jugalbandi festival (December 6 to 9), photography festival, arangu etc. Talk festival featuring 10 women speakers including Vrinda Karat of CPM, Khushboo and Manju Warrier will be held at January 1 to 10. The festival will conclude with a light and sound show ‘Indulekha’ on January 11. The great great grand daughter of O Chandu Menon who wrote the first novel in Malayalam, Chaithanya Unni will perform the tribute.