The three-day long centenary celebrations of the Kozhikode branch of Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala at Kallayi will be held at the Tagore Centenary Hall here from November 18- 20.

Governor P Sathasivam will inaugurate the celebrations at 4 pm on November 18, P M Warrier, additional chief physician of the Arya Vaidya Sala  said at a news conference here.

The governor will declare open the new building of the branch constructed at the Kallayi road.

A dance programme by dancers Sreekanth and Ashwati will be staged in the evening.

The cultural conference will be inaugurated by film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan at 10 am on November 19.

The 53rd Ayurveda Seminar will be inaugurated by M K Raghavan MP at 9.30 am on November 20. State health minister K K Shailaja will inaugurate the valedictory meeting of the centenary celebrations at 5 pm. TNN

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City News> Kozhikode / TNN / November 10th, 2016

The veena, said to be the ‘Queen of instruments’ in Carnatic music, was once indispensable to classical vocalists as a melodic accompaniment.

This changed with the arrival of the western violin, which began to replace the veena on concert stages. However, a group of veena aficionados decided to form a collective to bring the ancient instrument back into the mainstream.

Thus, the Veena Sangeetha Sangh was born on September 27, 2004, the 90th birth anniversary of the renowned veena exponent K. S. Narayana Swamy. The members of the group, such as P. S. Sunil, a well-known manufacturer of musical instruments and T. N. Sreekumaran Thampi, a teacher at the Department of Music, Kerala University, aim to carry on Narayana Swamy’s legacy through restoring the old glory of the veena and by encouraging classical music among youngsters.

To achieve this, the group has been regularly organising veena music festivals at colleges, including the Chembai Memorial Government Music College, Palakkad, S. N. College, Kollam and N.S.S. College, Thiruvananthapuram. They have also held programmes in Mumbai and Delhi.

Apart from stage programmes, the group also holds informal gatherings of classical music connoisseurs on a regular basis.

Performances by youngsters are particularly encouraged, though the group refrains from holding competitions, as they believe it goes against the spirit of music.

Ongoing Festival 

The latest in the line of such events is the K. S. Narayana Swamy Memorial Veena Music Festival being held in the capital city, in association with the the Department of Music, University of Kerala, and the Sri Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram.

The festival, which began on Monday, is a celebration of the 102nd birth anniversary of Narayana Swamy, as well as of the 12th anniversary of the Veena Sangeetha Sangh.

Dr. K. Omanakkutty, a disciple of Narayana Swamy and the first Head of the Department of Music, Kerala University, inaugurated the festival at the Maharani Sethu Parvathi Bayi Auditorium, Vazhuthacaud. The ceremony was followed by a lecture-demonstration of the veena by artist Bhagyalekshmi Chandrasekhar, and Mridangam and Ghatom recitals by Dr. Aneesh Krishna and R. Rajesh respectively. The festival will conclude on Tuesday with the presentation of the ‘Veena Sangeetha Retna Puraskar’, to be held at the Muthayya Bhagavathar Auditorium, Vazhuthacaud.

Performances by youngsters are particularly encouraged by the group

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by Sreelakshmi Sivaraman / September 27th, 2016

Pradeep Nair on his tryst with filmdom

Pradeep Nair made a splash at the State and National Film Awards in 2005 almost out of nowhere. At the National Awards, he won a special jury award for directing Oridam, his debut feature film. Oridam did even better at the State Awards. It won four awards, including one for actor Geethu Mohandas for her portrayal of a sex worker. The film had raised expectations about its self-taught director. However, Pradeep hasn’t been able to capitalise on it and hasn’t had a single release in theatres since then.

He is, nonetheless, hopeful about the new film he is starting later this month.Udal features Vijay Babu and Urmila Mahanta, who had acted in Ketan Mehta’sManjhi, in lead roles. “I am sure that this film will be noticed, just like Oridamwas. It is an intense love story, told from the point of view of a young working class woman. Her life changes when a writer enters her life,” says Pradeep.

This is not his first feature after Oridam, though. He directed Cherukkanum Pennum, starring Sreejith Vijay and Deepthi Nambiar in the lead. “It is about the relationships of young people; how quickly they get into one and then get out of it even faster,” says the Kottayam-based director.

Actually, it is after making his mark as a director of documentaries that Pradeep turned to feature films. His latest documentary, Kuttanad: Oru Apoorva Marutha Thina, recently won the state award, for the best film on science and environment.

“The brief from the Public Relations Department of the Government of Kerala was to make a 25-minute film about the heritage of Kuttanad,” says Pradeep. Kuttanad… runs into 91 minutes.

“When I started researching for the film, I delved into the history, culture, farming, and many other aspects of Kuttanad. I found it all fascinating and I felt I needed much more time to tell the story,” he explains.

Looking back at his life as a youngster besotted with film, he recalls that he just missed the mark to qualify for the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Then Pradeep decided to make Oridam by investing his own money. “There was no producer to begin with, but later on, a Malayali working in the United States, Jesinlal James, came on board. I was able to rope in Geethu for the lead role, and that helped to sell the film. It was made on a shoe-string budget,” he says.

He believes even now it is possible to do good work in Malayalam outside the mainstream. “The taste of the Malayali audience has changed. There are people in Kerala who view cinema seriously. Our film festivals, big and small, are ample proof of that,” he says.

source:  http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Friday Review / by P.K. Ajith Kumar / Thiruvananthapuram – August 11th, 2016