Appukutty biography of mahatma gandhi
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Indira Gandhi's Post
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How National Award winning actor Appukutty waited on success
Moviegoers might find themselves recollecting the plot of the1964 Tamil film Server Sundaram when they realise that Appukutty, now a National Award-winning actor for his turn in Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai (The Horse of Azhagarsami), had worked in several hotels and restaurants as a cleaner and server before he turned to acting.
“Life was not kind to me,” says Appukutty, whose real name is Shiva Balan. Originally from Nathan Kinaru, a remote village in the Thiruchendur district, Appukutty came to Chennai to make ends meet with odd jobs. “I was employed in a hotel in a Chennai suburb which housed many of the known shooting and recording studios. Junior artists and technicians from these studios used to be our regular customers.”
It was one of these regulars who introduced himself as a production manager to Appukutty, asking the then-waiter if he was interested in acting in films. “I just laughed. But he turned out to be serious, and asked me to meet him on the studio floor the next day for a possible acting job,” remembers Appukutty. But the meeting turned out to be a disappointment: the ‘production manager’ was nowhere to be seen and the studio staff said that
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Gandhi Seva Sadan
Kathakali institution in Perur, India
Gandhi Seva Sadan is a Kathakali institution located in Perur village, some 12 kilometres east of Ottapalam in Palakkad district of north-central Kerala in southern India. It was founded in 1953 by the (late) Gandhian and freedom fighter K. Kumaran, equally known for his unflagging devotion to the promotion of the arts.
Having celebrated its golden jubilee, Sadanam Kathakali and Classic Arts Academy is one of the four oldest schools providing training in the classical dance-drama of Kathakali in the traditional residential (gurukula) style. The most prominent among today's Kathakali exponents from Sadanam have all had tutelage under Padma ShriKeezhpadam Kumaran Nair.
Located in a green, silent locality on the banks of the river Bharatapuzha, Sadanam has groomed several artistes who have gained acclaim in the field as actor-dancers, musicians, percussionists, make-up men and greenroom assistants. Among them are Sadanam Krishnankutty, Sadanam P. V. Balakrishnan, Ramankutty, Narippatta Narayanan Namboodiri, Pariyanampatta Divakaran, Sadanam K. Harikumaran, Bhasi, Manikantan, Sreenathan, Rahul and Kiran (all actor-dancers), besides musicians like Sadanam Jyothi Radhakrishnan, Rajagopalan, Shyamalan and Sivadas; chen