User:Ratheesh Ramachandran/sandbox

chitharanjini:remembering the maestro' is a compilation of narratives on the musical excellency of the kathakali musician late Kalamandalam Haridas (1946-2005). The research, at this point, is breafly held on Haridas's school days in Kerala kalamandalam, where he was trained, initially under gurus Kalamandalam Neelakandan Nambeesan and Sivaraman Nair. Later he became the first and prime student of Kalamandalam Gangadharan. Recognizing his roots, Haridas states that he had been spent the major part of his training in the classroom of Actor Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair Asan. The years he spent in Darpana Academy in Ahemadabad, brought him tremendous experience with Hindusthani Style of Indian music. Dancer Kottakkal Sasidharan who shared a room with Haridas in Darpana heartfully remembers Haridas's keen interest in 'serching for the new in whatever he heard' during the Ahemadabad chapter. Carnatic Musician Mavelikkara P. Subrahmaniam recalls his memories of Haridas that begins from the later part of 1960s, the excellance Haridas demonstrated as an accompanist (sankidi) singer, and later to the his days as a leading (ponnani) musician. The Thiruvananthapuram based instituion 'Margi' provided shelter to Haridas in order to re-establish his relation to Kathakali which was somehow brocken during the 8 years he spent in Darpana. Haridas accompanied Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri in popularizing kathakali music during the 70s and 80s, which in certain manner classified Haridas as a regular accompanist. Eventhough the Embranthiri-Haridas Team was the highlight of those years, other senior singers such as Kalamandalam Gangadharan and Kalamandalam Hyderali preffered Haridas to be their 'sankidi' singer. The discussions in general states that Haridas was perfect in delivering the 'bhava' needed for each characters. His literary understanding of the kathakali texts, contextual awareness about each and every character as well as his preciseness in using adequate ragas had been unique when considering the known history of Kathakali Music to the date.

List of participants: Kalamandalam Gangadharan Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody Kalamandalam M.P.S. Namboothiri Kottakkal P.D. Namboothiri Kottakkal Sasidharan Mavelikkara P. Subrahmaniam D. Vinayachandran K.B. Raj Anand Margi Vijayakumar Kalamandalam krishnan Kutty Kalamandalam Babu Namboothiri Dr. Manoj Kuroor Margi Mohanan Kalamandalam Harish Kalamandalam Vinod Kalanilayam Rajeevan

Old recordings of Haridas's music, audio clips from a 1997 interview, priceless photographs, Haridas Drawings from Artist R. Venu, all take part in vowing the discussions in a touching style.

'Chitharanjini' doubtlessly registers the importance of Kalamandalam Haridas in the history of Kathakali.