Lead melam artiste Satheesan Marar gears up for Kerala’s annual temple pageant season

Peruvanam Satheesan Marai main the Panchari Melam ensemble.
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association

Peruvanam Satheesan Marar was in his early twenties when the percussionist discovered a junior’s slot at what heralds the annual temple pageant season in Kerala — the Tripunithura ulsavam. To get positioned alongside one finish of the entrance row of chenda drums on the four-hour ensemble was nonetheless an achievement. For, this ulsavam has been a royal harbinger to summer-time cultural celebrations throughout the State. This month-end, because the eight-day occasion begins, Satheesan will lead a few rhythmic live shows on the similar venue close to Kochi.

This has been the routine because the begin of this decade. Solely, this time, Satheesan is recent after his sixtieth birthday celebration, which noticed a formidable gathering at his Peruvanam village close to Thrissur. Connoisseurs and admirers spoke extremely of the lyricism gracing his melams that includes 120-odd artistes — be it the Panchari selection set to multiples of six beats or the extra aggressive Pandi that tapers in cycles of seven.

Peruvanam Satheesan Marar throughout a efficiency.
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

Like most members of the temple-allied Marar group within the Nineteen Sixties, Satheesan can’t recollect his earliest involvement with melam. “We boys usually help elders within the percussive rituals on the neighbourhood shrine; I started doing so across the age of 5,” says the virtuoso, reputed for the cadence typical of his legendary father Chakkamkulam Appu Marar. The formal debut occurred when 15-year-old Satheesan introduced a 40-minute solo tayambaka on the chenda. That was on the famed Tiruvullakavu, along with his brothers offering the rhythmic accompaniment on the bass drums and cymbals.

Satheesan’s principal guru is theoretician Kumarapuram Appu Marar. “Together with deep information, he had immense endurance. He was so sort that we generally felt if he had been a strict disciplinarian we might have learnt sooner,” he says with a smile, additionally acknowledging the coaching below his uncle Peruvanam Appu Marar. As soon as Satheesan was sturdy within the fundamentals, his father taught him the essence of the difficult 14-beat adanthakooru that comes halfway in a tayambaka. The teenager later took his superior classes from Pallavur Kunjukutta Marar, staying on the exponent’s residence close to Palakkad.

The felicity and creativeness he developed as a tayambaka artiste helped Satheesan in gaining experience in melam, which, nevertheless, provides no room for improvisation. “You might want to equip your self to conceive a rhythmic efficiency of at least three hours,” says Satheesan. “Among the many two widespread melams, Pandi calls for extra focus from the anchor. Panchari has extra gravitas, however it inherently ensures easy development.”

Satheesan additionally sometimes demonstrates his virtuosity within the extra sonorous panchavadyam. On the orchestra with 60-odd individuals enjoying 5 sorts of devices, Satheesan would lead with the slender timila that generates resonant faucets and rolls. The hourglass-shaped edakka is one other key presence within the symphony. Satheesan performs that as nicely, regardless of no formal coaching. Additional, utilizing the edakka because the accompanying drum, he sings Sopanam music. “Not that I realized it systematically however can handle to play,” he says, rendering in Pantuvarali raga the famed Chandana charchita ashtapadi from Gita Govidam.

Speaking concerning the qualities a melam artiste ought to possess, Satheesan, whose sons Yadu and Mohan are promising percussionist, says, “Bodily health is extraordinarily essential. Additionally, study to be a workforce participant. Children have plenty of alternatives; previous commanding methods don’t work any longer.”