Thiruvananthapuram: Jayaram is as excited as he was when he won the Padma Shri award. He likes to rate the Pravasi Kalasree Award of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi for chenda melam above his accomplishments as an actor. Such is his fondness for chenda (drum). It is a passion that started from the Pooram grounds in his childhood. It is exactly what eggs him on to get up at 4 in the morning and do rigorous practice even amid the busy schedules of a film actor.
Jayaram talks to Manorama about the award win.
Passion of childhood
The infatuation with chenda started in the Malayatoor childhood. Those days the idea of going to temple festivals was mainly to listen to the chenda melam and watch the majestic elephants. Once back from the Poorams, I would practice the percussion I heard there on the table at home to the best of my abilities. One could say that that old table is my first guru in chenda. My mother was all for me learning chenda. But the circumstances at home willed it otherwise. I started classically learning chenda only after entering films. It has been 17 years now. Pallassana Nandakumar was my first guru. Arengetam (debut performance) was under his tutelage. I later studied for a while under Margi Krishnadas. The big lessons in Panchari melam and now Pandi melam were imbibed from no less a great than Mattannur Sankarankutty Marar. I consider it my great fortune.
Kalasree Award
As an artist I hold all awards – big and small – in the same regard. Even the Padma Shri came to me as a cinema artist. At the same time the awards I won from Kerala Kalamandalam and Sangeetha Nataka Akademi as a chenda artist are immensely valuable to me.
More responsibility
The Akademi Award increases my responsibility as a chenda artist. I must take a more serious approach to chenda. As a mela artist who plays the panchari and pandi, I have invites to hundreds of temples in Kerala for the next festival season. My wish is to go to at least one or two a month after taking a break from film commitments. The remuneration received for the melams will be set aside for helping the poor.
Wish
My biggest wish as a chenda artist is fulfilled. What more to wish for than to play the chenda standing alongside the towering geniuses of chenda, Peruvanam Kuttan Marar and Mattannur Sankarankutty Marar. I played the chenda on stage at the function to honour Preuvanam on his winning the Padma Shri. Like all chenda artists I too long to play at the Trissur Pooram. But it is up to them to invite me as a chenda artist.