Lead melam artiste Satheesan Marar gears up for Kerala’s annual temple festival season

Peruvanam Satheesan Marar, a legendary percussionist, leads rhythmic concerts at temple festivals in Kerala with expertise and grace.

Peruvanam Satheesan Marar was in his early twenties when the percussionist found a junior’s slot at what heralds the annual temple festival season in Kerala — the Tripunithura ulsavam. To get placed along one end of the front row of chenda drums at the four-hour ensemble was still an achievement. For, this ulsavam has been a royal harbinger to summer-time cultural celebrations across the State. This month-end, as the eight-day event begins, Satheesan will lead a couple of rhythmic concerts at the same venue near Kochi.

This has been the routine since the start of this decade. Only, this time, Satheesan is fresh after his 60th birthday celebration, which saw an impressive gathering at his Peruvanam village near Thrissur. Connoisseurs and admirers spoke highly of the lyricism gracing his melams featuring 120-odd artistes — be it the Panchari variety set to multiples of six beats or the more aggressive Pandi that tapers in cycles of seven.

Like most members of the temple-allied Marar community in the 1960s, Satheesan cannot recollect his earliest involvement with melam. “We boys customarily assist elders in the percussive rituals at the neighbourhood shrine; I began doing so around the age of five,” says the virtuoso, reputed for the cadence typical of his legendary father Chakkamkulam Appu Marar. The formal debut happened when 15-year-old Satheesan presented a 40-minute solo tayambaka on the chenda. That was at the famed Tiruvullakavu, with his brothers providing the rhythmic accompaniment on the bass drums and cymbals.

Satheesan’s principal guru is theoretician Kumarapuram Appu Marar. “Along with deep knowledge, he had immense patience. He was so kind that we sometimes felt if he had been a strict disciplinarian we would have learnt faster,” he says with a smile, also acknowledging the training under his uncle Peruvanam Appu Marar. Once Satheesan was strong in the fundamentals, his father taught him the essence of the challenging 14-beat adanthakooru that comes midway in a tayambaka. The youngster later took his advanced lessons from Pallavur Kunjukutta Marar, staying at the exponent’s home near Palakkad.

The felicity and imagination he developed as a tayambaka artiste helped Satheesan in gaining expertise in melam, which, however, offers no room for improvisation. “You need to equip yourself to conceive a rhythmic performance of no less than three hours,” says Satheesan. “Among the two common melams, Pandi demands more focus from the anchor. Panchari has more gravitas, but it inherently guarantees smooth progression.”

Satheesan also occasionally demonstrates his virtuosity in the more sonorous panchavadyam. At the orchestra with 60-odd people playing five kinds of instruments, Satheesan would lead with the slender timila that generates resonant taps and rolls. The hourglass-shaped edakka is another key presence in the symphony. Satheesan plays that as well, despite no formal training. Further, using the edakka as the accompanying drum, he sings Sopanam music. “Not that I learned it systematically but can manage to play,” he says, rendering in Pantuvarali raga the famed Chandana charchita ashtapadi from Gita Govidam.

Talking about the qualities a melam artiste should possess, Satheesan, whose sons Yadu and Mohan are promising percussionist, says, “Physical fitness is extremely important. Also, learn to be a team player. Youngsters have lots of opportunities; old commanding ways don’t work any longer.”