The Nishagandhi festival of 2014, the cultural extravaganza organized
by Kerala tourism started on 20 January 2014 at Kanakakunnu, Thiruvananthapuram
in the district of Kerala. The seven day festival unfolds seven nights of Indian
classical dance and music. The open air theatre in Kanakakunnu Palace at Thiruvananthapuram
stages the performances of talented artists from all over India.
The chief minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy inaugurated the
festival on 20th of January, Monday. The inaugural ceremony was
followed by bharathanatyam by Navya Nair, an actress and a dancer who was a
winner of Kerala Youth Festival. After the performance, there was a Carnatic
music concert by P Unnikrishnan, the famous musician and playback singer. The concert
was accompanied by Avaneeswaram Vinu on violin , Nanjil Arul on Mridangam and
thrippunithura Radhakrishnan on Ghatam.
On 21 January 2014, the festival starts with the odissi
performance by Rina Jana & Group at evening. 6.30pm. Rina Jana is one of
the top odissi artists of India and a senior disciple of Guru Kelucharan
Mahapatra, a well known odissi dancer. A musical fusion by Rahul Sharma and
group will be at 08.00pm on the same day. Divya Sena, the kuchipudi dancer will
perform on Wednesday, 22nd of January at 6.30pm. At 07.15pm, there
will be a bharathanatyam performance by Dr Rajashree Warrier, a bharathanatyam
exponent, well versed in classical music. She has been awarded P.hd in music by Kerala University. The concluding
performance on 22nd will be the Hindustani music concert by
Suchismitha Das.
Ayswarya Wariar, the mohiniyattam performer will open up the
stage on the fourth day of the festival. The second performance of the day will be Bharathanatyam
by Sarada Thampi, the talented classical dancer of the South. The ghazal singer
Jaswinder Singh will mesmerize the audience with his singing from 08.00pm on 23th
of January. Kuchippudi by Vidhun Kumar, Bharathanatyam
recital by Seetha Sasidharan, a former student of Kalakshethra and Manipuri dance
by Poushali Chaterjee & Group will be
scheduled on 24 January 2014.
On 25th January, P Jayachandran will have a
Carnatic music concert with Dr M Chandrasekharan (Violin), Guruvayoor Dorai (Mridangam),
Thrikkakara Y N Santharam(Ganjira) and Anil Kumar (Ghatam). Susmitha Banarjee
& group will perform kathak dance on this day. Mohiniyattam by Likha Rajan is the initial
performance on Saturday, 25th January. Malayalam filim actress Kavya
Madhavan thrills the audience by her bharathanatyam dance on 26th of
January, the final day of the festival. A Musical Fusion by the noted singer
Karthik and Group will be the last performance of the festival.
On all the seven days from 20th to 26th
January 2014, Kathakali, the classical dance form of Kerala will be staged at
Kanakunnu Palace from 06.30pm. A food festival is arranged here on these seven
days by Kudumbashree, the women empowerment group. The festival gives an
opportunity for the visitors to taste the ethnic preparations of Kerala. The
visitors of Nishagandhi festival can also see and buy the arts and handicrafts of
Kerala, by Sargalaya, the craft village in Vadakara, Kozhikode district of Kerala.
Above all, this year for the first time, there is live
webcast of the festival till January 26th. The everyday programmes at
Kanakakunnu will be webcast on the website of Kerala tourism. The spot editing
and live webcast is done by Invis Multimedia, the IT consultant of Kerala tourism
department.
For details & webcast visit, www.keralatourism.org.