Monday, July 19, 2010

Kottakkal Shivaraman Passed away


Well known Kathakali Artiste "Kottakkal Sivaraman"(74) passed away at his house in Karalmanna late Monday night.

The 1936-born Sivaraman, a disciple of his uncle-guru Padma Shri Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair at the PSV Natyasangham in Kottakkal in north-central Kerala's Malappuram district, decided to change all this subordination. By the 1960s, he had experimented those ideas on stage with success, much to the appreciation of aesthetes not only in his native Valluvanad, an erstwhile central-Kerala fiefdom which has been the homestead for the refined Kalluvazhi style of Kathakali, but across Kerala and subsequently the rest of the world. His Karalmanna village, north of Cherpulassery, in Palakkad district thus further affixed its name on the Kathakali map.

He was famous for his female roles in Kathakali like Dhamayanthy, Sairandhri, Rugmini etc. For these roles he was given the ‘Sthree Retnam’ award by Kerala Government recently.