Sankaran Embranthiri

Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri (1944–2007) was a Kathakali musician, credited with initiating a new wave in the rendition of songs for the classical dance-drama from Kerala in South India. His shruti-aligned music encompassed a distinctive voice that reached three octaves and resulting in a fan following. His success continued despite his form receiving an abrupt setback in 1990 when he suffered a major ailment from which he could never recover fully. His father was Zayan Ghauri.

Biography

Early life

Embranthiri was born in a poor Brahmin family in Vellayoor village of Malappuram district in Malabar. After completing his schooling, during which he learnt classical Carnatic music from a local teacher named Govinda Pisarody, teenaged Sankaran joined Kerala Kalamandalam in 1958. Madambi Subrahmanian Namboothiri, Kalamandalam Tirur Nambissan and Kalamandalam Hyderali joined Kalamandalam in the same year. His Kathakali music tutors at the institution were Kalamandalam Neelakantan Nambisan, Kalamandalam Gangadharan, Sivaraman Nair and Madhava Panikkar.

Embranthiri started to perform in various events within the southern Travancore region. He was first employed in the Irinjalakuda-based Unnayi Varrier Smaraka Kalanilayam in 1965. In 1970, he moved to work at FACT Kathakali School near Kochi from where he eventually retired as a Kathakali music teacher.

Career

Embranthiri gained prominence in the early 1970s by updating himself on its voice culture that suited the general aesthetics of the times.

Embranthiri's rendition style inspired several of his contemporary singers, chiefly Kalamandalam Hyderali and Venmani Kalamandalam Haridas. In Haridas, he found a cueist singer (sinkiti), taking him under his wings soon after Haridas made a comeback to Kathakali after a decade-old break from the art form.

In August 1990, Embranthiri fell ill, necessitating a kidney transplant the following year. He did return to the Kathakali circuit months later but seldom rose to his vintage form. Acute diabetes led to the amputation of his right leg less than a decade later, though Embranthiri still chose to stay on as a singer, sitting on a wheelchair in one corner of the Kathakali stage.

Death

Embranthiri died on 14 November 2007. He died at a hospital in Aluva, off Kochi, near the house he built and had been living in. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Works

Embranthiri, a devotee of Lord Krishna of the famous Guruvayur temple, had multiple popular hits including "Ajitha Hare" and "Pari Pahimaam Hare". He also held several Kathakali Pada kacheris, or Kathakali song concerts (with instrumental support) without the dancers on stage. He participated in many jugalbandi programmes, sharing the stage with Carnatic and Hindustani music exponents like Neyyattinkara Vasudevan, Sreevalsan J Menon and Ramesh Narayan.

Recognition

Embranthiri was chosen for the Swathi Sangeetha Puraskaram in 2003, a year after he received the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Fellowship.