Awards for young talent

The 17th Margazhi Mahotsav at Bharat Kalachar was inaugurated by the Governor of Tamil Nadu, P.S. Ramamohan Rao on 12 December at the YGP auditorium, T. Nagar.

Commencing the programme was vocalist Seetha Rajan and her Bala Brundam Sangita Gurukulam, with songs dedicated to the late Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. A portrait of the maestro was also unveiled later. Dancer Madhuvanthi Arun (grand-daughter of Mrs. Y.G. Parthsarathy) who has taken over as the Cultural Consultant of Bharat Kalachar from this year, gave the welcome address. She surprised the Governor with some Telugu too!

As the tradition has always been here, this sabha had about 20 artistes on stage who were honoured with different titles.

The governor presented the 'Viswa Kala Bharathi' award to Karaikudi Krishnamurthy (service in the field of fine Arts abroad) and 'Kala Seva Bharathi' to dancers Radhika Shurajith and Manjula Lusti Narasimhan. While dance guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy presented the 'Yuva Kala Bharathi' award for young talent to Sriram Parthasarathy (vocal), Mahanadhi K.Shobana (classical devotional songs), Mysore A.Chandankumar(flute), Nagai Sriram (violin), Karukaruchi N. Mohanaraman, R.Mohanakrishnan, Rohan Krishnamurthy (mridangam), Ravi Balasubramanian (ghatam), Preethi Vasudevan, Archana Narayanamurthy, Suma Mani (Bharatanatyam).

Also honoured on the occasion were veteran film director K. Balachander and lyricist Vali.

While the Govrenor did mention that he was running out of themes to talk about at inaugurals he's been attending almost everyday, he had some words of appreciation for the enthusiastic Mrs. Y.G.P. A dance-theatre production themed on the 'Sanjeevini Manthram' was presented by dancer L. Narendra Kumar and his Anusham group.