padmanabha
14th September 2006, 02:56 PM
[tscii:b77bac9d1a]At last his dream came true. Though settled in Chennai it was his wish to receive an award from his native place Kerala. Now the state sangeeta nataka academy has conferred him the award. Meet Guruvayoor Dorai the popular mrudangam cum ghatom artiste. This musician was in the city recently. Excerpts from the interview:
“I belong to a conservative family in Guruvayoor. At the age of five I was affected by polio. Whenever my sister sing I use to keep the tala and to my excitement one day my father brought a toy mrudangam. My father was a great connoisseur of music and for most of the artistes who visited Guruvayoor he would be their host. Thus one day Palakkad Subbiar who came to my house saw me playing with the toy mrudangam and advised my father to initiate me into mrudangam. He taught me the initial lessons and took classes whenever he visits our house, as I cannot travel. He also suggested me to accompany my sister whenever she practices” reminisces Dorai.
“One day the legendary singer Chembai came to our house and in the evening asked me to get ready. I was only eight then and was obviously unaware of his greatness. He said “you are going to accompany me today.” When I look back, I consider it a great fortune and blessing. It was exactly 50 years ago. Then the family moved to madras as my sister had the opportunity to sing for a film. We settled at Mylapore and the Kapaliswara temple had witnessed great performers like Sanjeeva Rao, H Muthaih Bhagavathar and M D Ramanathan. In 1954 I had the fortune to accompany Rajaratnam Pillai the nagaswaram wizard and Peramangalam Subramania Bhagavathar a great vainika. I have accompanied Mahalingam [flute] on ganjira. I have performed vocal concerts many times for Radio Malaya and Singapore Radio. I have handled percussion instruments for Devarajan and Dakshinamurthy. Odayilninnu is the only film, which I remember still. I have PERFORMED jugalbandi with Allarakka and Zakkir Hussein” he said.
According to him today Kerala has plenty of quality musicians especially youngsters. They need determination and perseverance to become quality performers.
He is a visiting professor in the USA. The Drum players were awe struck to see Indian percussionists playing with their bare hands.
He has received many awards including Palakkad Mani Iyer memorial award, Tamil Nadu government’s academy award and the title of Kalaimamani. He is the Hon. Patron of Carnatic Music Association Of North America. (CAMANA
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“I belong to a conservative family in Guruvayoor. At the age of five I was affected by polio. Whenever my sister sing I use to keep the tala and to my excitement one day my father brought a toy mrudangam. My father was a great connoisseur of music and for most of the artistes who visited Guruvayoor he would be their host. Thus one day Palakkad Subbiar who came to my house saw me playing with the toy mrudangam and advised my father to initiate me into mrudangam. He taught me the initial lessons and took classes whenever he visits our house, as I cannot travel. He also suggested me to accompany my sister whenever she practices” reminisces Dorai.
“One day the legendary singer Chembai came to our house and in the evening asked me to get ready. I was only eight then and was obviously unaware of his greatness. He said “you are going to accompany me today.” When I look back, I consider it a great fortune and blessing. It was exactly 50 years ago. Then the family moved to madras as my sister had the opportunity to sing for a film. We settled at Mylapore and the Kapaliswara temple had witnessed great performers like Sanjeeva Rao, H Muthaih Bhagavathar and M D Ramanathan. In 1954 I had the fortune to accompany Rajaratnam Pillai the nagaswaram wizard and Peramangalam Subramania Bhagavathar a great vainika. I have accompanied Mahalingam [flute] on ganjira. I have performed vocal concerts many times for Radio Malaya and Singapore Radio. I have handled percussion instruments for Devarajan and Dakshinamurthy. Odayilninnu is the only film, which I remember still. I have PERFORMED jugalbandi with Allarakka and Zakkir Hussein” he said.
According to him today Kerala has plenty of quality musicians especially youngsters. They need determination and perseverance to become quality performers.
He is a visiting professor in the USA. The Drum players were awe struck to see Indian percussionists playing with their bare hands.
He has received many awards including Palakkad Mani Iyer memorial award, Tamil Nadu government’s academy award and the title of Kalaimamani. He is the Hon. Patron of Carnatic Music Association Of North America. (CAMANA
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