Veena Janardhanan

Let me take the liberty, here, to introduce myself .Samudra Arts International as you can guess , is an organisation set up in the gulf region, to promote all kinds of art forms from India and also from other countries, for which I am the Founder -Director. We also hold A Data Bank for International Artists and we are also International Representatives for WHI(Womens' Empowerment and Human resources Development Centre of India).

Samudra Arts International, was Inaugurated ten years back by Princess Gouri Parvathi Bayi of the Travancore Royal Family, Kerala. Since then we have been bringing a lot of classical art forms , mimicry artists of repute(like the KalaBhavan artists) and also many programmes mainly from Malayalam -Tamil cine fields. our main aim is promote these artists, like giving them stages wherever possible, finding out interested people from all over the world.We believe that we, as expatriates have a moral obligation to each other for promoting our culture and awareness among our Youth and so we are also involved in promoting art forms like Kathakali, Koodiyattom, Mohiniyattom, Kutchupudi, and many other dying art forms from kerala and other parts of India.

We tailor programmes to the requirements of the people , to satisfy their audience and limit the number of persons and remuneration within the budget that they putforth. I was trying to contact you mainly to find out if you have any project in your mind for " Onam " or "Vishu" and if we could be of any help to you.

Some programmes for your judgment:

1. Flute-Sarod Jugalbandhi
By Pandit GS Rajan and Dr.Mukesh Sharma
Pandit Rajan is a renowned composer and carnatic classical Flautist and Dr.Mukesh Sharma is an equally famous Sarod Mastero. They have presented a Jugal-Bhandhi in Tehran recently for "The International Convention of South Indian Heritage" Their group will comprise of Dr.Sharma,Rajanji,Tabla,Mridhangamand Tampura

2.Guitar-Sitar Jugal-Bandhi
Dr.Kamla Shankar and Pdt.Rajeev Janardhananan
Dr.Kamala and Rajeevji both hail from varnasi and have performed Jugalbandhis and solo performances . They will also be accompanied by three piece orchestra Dr. Kamala performs Indian Classical notes beautifully on Guitar accompanied by Rajeevji on Sitar.

3.Hindustani Vocal
Dr.Ramesh Narayan: He has sung non-stop for 72 hours .

4.Carnatic music
Dr. Rajkumar Bharathi: The Great Grandson of Shri Subramonia Bharathi - The Great Tamil Poet who needs no Introduction. We can have a Hindustani-Carnatic Jugal-Bandhi or their solos

DANCES

1. Dr.Sharmila Biswas
Sharmila Biswas for presenting "Odissi" . She has compiled a latest version called "Dhulikhel". Dhulikhel is based on a variety of Tribal and rural drums of western Orissa . In this dance production the drummers and the dancers bring out the technical and spiritual dimensions of traditional drumming , folk-and classical dances of Orrissa They will have 12 artists. 6 drummers from Sambalpur and 6 dancers ....Sound and Light ..preferrably Open Air ( for more effectiveness....if we are to have it done in auditorium the rates for the Sound and Light would be slightly low...but for perfection it would be preferrable in an open auditorium.

2. The same kind of programme where the drummers and dancers participate can be done with 15 people ......having all most all the drums of SriLanka , whereby the drummers themselves are dancers and all of them appear together on stage on conclusion of the programme ie..., all instruments and dancers appear together ...Here We can get the support of the Sri Lankan air lines too.)

3.RAJENDRA GANGANI
Pandit Rajenderji is a renowned Kathak artiste ..The Name in block letters indicates my special recommendation to this "Man of Magic" . his father Kunal Gangani is one of the First disciple of Pndt.Birju Maharaj and he hails from a family of dances for centuries. He has composed and presented a lot of solos and jugalbandhis including Kathak-Mohiniyattom a slow dance of Kerala ...but very beautiful.....performed in the days of Rajas by Devadassis.... and also Kathak -Bharthnatyam ....He has toured extensively performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall,London "Festival of India in USSR , USA, Italy, Germany,f rance, China,Japan, Paris, Scandinavia and Midlle -East countries. He has many awards to his credit both Nationally and Internationally, acclaimed artist. He also plays on the Tabla,Harmonium andPakhwaj. He has also done Kathak harmonising it in both Indian classical style and Fleminco style.

4.FOR BHARTHNATYAM
Some of the names that can be mentioned here are:
Dr.Padmashree Padma Subramonium
Padmashree Chitra Visveswaran
Padmashree Sudhrani Raghupathy
Dr Dhananjayan and Mrs(Dr) Shanta Dhanjayan and troupe

THESE SOME OF THE NAMES I HAVE TAKEN FROM MY ARTISTS DATA BANK FOR YOUR PERUSAL. Please go through them and see if any of them interests you.

Contact details:
Mrs.Veena Janardhanan
Email: veenajan@hotmail.com