Various forms of art showcased

Festival Treat

Kalaarnava, a dawn-to-dusk cultural festival, was hosted by the Gokulam School of Music recently.

This festival, held every year, aims to present various forms of art like Carnatic and Hindustani music, bharatanatyam, yakshagana, karagattam, ashtavadhana, sugam sangeet, ghazals, kaavya vachana, to name a few.

Clad in orange kurta and a white dhoti, Shashank R J, a class 10 student of Sri Kumarans Children’s Home, started Kalaarnava 2012 by playing a song called Vandeni Shamaham in raag Hamsadhwani on his flute. As the proceedings started, the hall started filling up.

As part of the Gokulam Ensemble, several students, along with Shashank, sang various songs under the guidance of H S Venugopal, the founder and guru of Gokulam Music School.

The ensemble had eight flautists, along with a violinist, a mridangam player and a musician on moche (a kind of a mouth organ).

“I was two years old when I started playing the flute. I like all the musical instruments, but flute is my favourite. I started practising this instrument in particular after my gurus encouraged me to play at school functions,” said Shashank.
Venugopal has been teaching flute to his students for the past 30 years.

His love for music and passion makes him organise this event every year, on the first Sunday of June.

After the ensemble, Radhaantaranga, which was a bharatanatyam and yakshagana collaboration, was presented.

It was performed by Rangashree and Mantap Prabhakar Upadhya and was conceptualised by Korgi Shankarana Rayana Upadhyaya and his team.

 The other programmes of the festival were Ali-Baba, a comedy by Natana, Mysore; a bharatanatyam thematic presentation and ‘Earth ‘n Beat’, a world music ensemble led by Praveen D Rao. This was indeed a treat.

“Singers and musicians, who are part of this school, sing at various programmes. With the money earned, they organise this programme every year,” said one of the coordinators of the programme.

An album called Bidiru, which is a collection of daasa sahitya, rendered by Varijashree Venugopal, was launched on the occasion. The day ended with Thyagaraja’s Rama, a Carnatic recital by Vanijashree.