Every year, a band of devoted rasikas in Kerala remembers the Carnatic music maestero who was simply called MDR - M D Ramanathan.

MDR passed away 25 years ago and the 2009 event to be held on April 26 this year will be the seventh edition.

The venue is the Rugmini Kalyana Mandapam ( statue junction in this town) and a string of events have been lined up.
These include the releasde of a book on Palakkad Mani Iyer written by Krishnamoorthy and published by Current Books, Thrissur.

The event will begin with a commemorative talk on MDR by violin maestro T N Krishnan and tributes to Palakkad Mani Iyer to be made by Palakkad T. R. Rajaram, Prof. Mavelikkara Velukutty Nair and Thiruvananthapuram V. Surendran.

A docu-film on MDR titled 'Samam' will be screened at the hall after lunch.

There is also a film screening of 'Vani' in Kannada, a 1943 film that stars Mysore T Chowdiah, Pandaribai, Chembai and Palakkad Mani Iyer with music scored by Chowdiah.

The evening function, 5 p.m. onwards has the Kerala state minister for education and cultural affairs, M A Baby as the chief guest. The book on Mani Iyer will be released and there will be a violin concert by T. N. Krishnan, with Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman on the mirdangam and Tripunithura N Radhakrishnan on the ghatam.

The contact for this event is - Krishnamoorthy, Thiruppukazh, Poonithura, Ernakulam 682 038. Cellphone - 98951 95984.