55-day arts festival to begin tomorrow

Thiruvananthapuram: An

arts festival

where master artists will perform classical dance and music will be held on the sidelines of this year’s

Murajapam

and Lakshadeepam . A 55-day long art festival ‘Sree Padmanabham’ will be organized at the East Nada from November 21.

Curated by Soorya Krishnamoorthy, the arts festival will have Kathakali, Nangyar Koothu, Koodiyattam and Chakyarkoothu and classical dance and music programmes.

The inaugural event will be an instrumental ensemble with group Mohiniyattam by 140 artists. The 20-minute long event will be followed by Mohiniyattam performance by Gopika Varma and Kuchipudi by Ananda Shankar Jayant.

The grand finale of the event will be a specially choreographed programme of Kathak, Manipuri, Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam, Kuchipudi and Odissi. “It will be an artistic offering to Sree Padmanabha Swamy, as all the artists have agreed to perform here for free,” said Soorya Krishnamoorthy.

Artists from across the country including Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Janaki Rangarajan, Asha Sharath, Paris Lakshmi, Manjari, M Jayachandran, Ramesh Narayan and Binni Krishnakumar will be performing at the event

Also, a Vedic seminar is proposed to be held along with the celebration in the month of December and January 2020. Vedic pundits will conduct seminar on four Vedas-Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda.

“Earlier, the art festival was held inside the temple premises. In this edition of the celebration, we have arranged the stage outside the temple compound, so that devotees can enjoy the cultural programmes. Also, the seminar will give people an understanding about the Vedas,” said executive officer of Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, V Ratheesan.

The arts festival will be held from 7.15 pm to 8.15 pm.