The song of the year
M. RAGHURAM
|
Virasat, the annual cultural festival in Moodbidri, organised by Mohan Alwa, is underway
|
ALL STARRY The Virasat festival will have some of the best in the music field
Moodbidri, the temple town known as Jain Kashi is the cultural centre of Dakshina Kannada district. Moodbidri hosts Nudi Siri the annual literary meet, it hosts the annual state-level sports event, Ekalavya Kreedotsava, and Virasat, a national cultural meet.
All these landmark events are the brainchild of Mijar Mohan Alva, an educationist and a philanthropist. Ten years ago, when he thought of a national level cultural festival, he decided to call it Virasat, or legacy. In the last ten years, he has added Ekalavya and Nudi Siri to the list of activities that this little town organises.
Nudisiri which was recently held under the presidentship of well known literary figure Chandrashekar Kambar had attracted national and international scholars of language, literature and poetry. This literary festival, which has now attained the magnitude of a full-scale national meet on Kannada, is organised on the scale of Kannada Sahitya Sammelana itself.
For the three days from January 4 to January 7, 2007, Virasat will be held in Moodbidri. The musicians to perform in this festival are tabla maestro Zakir Hussian, violinist Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and playback singer S.P. Balasubramaniam.
Yesterday, the opening day of the festival, Ustad Zakir Hussain was honoured with the Virasat Award 2006. It constitutes a citation and a memento. It was followed by a jugalbandi of the maestro with the sarangi exponent, Ustad Sultan Khan.
Today, Kunnukudi Vaidyanathan will give a violin concert followed by a dance ballet Samarpan in Mohiniyattam by Gopika Varma. S.P. Balasubramaniam will play on January 6, followed by Ojas, a dance performance by Nirupama Rajendra and troupe.
The finale comprises a Hindustani classical ensemble with Praveen Godkhindi on flute, Salil Bhat on satvika veena, Sandeep Chaterjee on santoor, Vijay Ghate on tabla. The final session of Virasat will feature Lenny Fernandes and troupe performing a dance ballet entitled Sacred Space.
Apart from the cultural extravaganza, the site of Virasat will also have an exhibition of rare collection of artefacts, sculptures, paintings and photographs, which will be open from January 4 to January 7. Additional attractions like the Shobha Vana, an arboretum, and the Alva's Ayurvedic medicine production centre are also near the Virasat site.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
