Manjoor Unnikrishnan performs jingle bells on Ghatam

Ghatam performer Manjoor Unnikrishnan has his own way of wishing his friends and families during festivities. He performs songs related to the festival on Ghatam and sends it as a greeting to all.
This year, he has played Jingle bells on Ghatam. "I am really excited as I am getting a lot of responses from my friends and families," he says.
For Vishu, the musician played Kani Kanum Neram and for Ramazan he performed Rasoole..."On Independence Day, Vande Mathram and for Onam Maveli Naadu Vanidum Kalam, For Gandhi Jayanti I played Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram," he says adding that all credit for his experiments on Ghatam goes to his masters, Cherthala Baskara Kurup and Chandrashekaran Nair.
Manjoor Unnikrishnan has bagged Ganabhooshanam from RLV college, Kochi. He has also bagged many awards including Ghatam Vidwan and Ghatam Chakarvarthy award. He has performed with different artistes and travelled around 22 countries. “My first tour abroad was in 2000 for a concert by M Balamuralikrishna in Kuwait. I was trained to play mridangam but I was always in love with Ghatam. Even during college days, I used to play ghatam,” he says. He has also accompanied artistes such as Trichy Ganesan, Mathangi Satyamurthi and Sankaran Namboodiri for more than 25 concerts. Apart from this he was part of Balabhaskar’s fusion ensemble.
Jingle Bells, written by James Lord Pierpont, is one of the most sung Christmas songs in the world, though it has no original connection to the festival. It was published under the title The One Horse Open Sleigh in 1857.