Guntur: Colorful beginning to 'Janapada Kalotsavam'

GUNTUR: `Dream and colourful beginning' was how people of Guntur and folk artistes from all over Andhra Pradesh described the inaugural జానపదం (Janapadam) rally from NTR Stadium to Sri Venkateswara Vignana Mandiram on Friday evening.

As part of the three-day biennial జానపద కలోత్సవం (Janapada Kalotsavam) organised by the Telugu Association of North America (TANA), some 300 folk artistes, schoolchildren and art lovers walked on the main roads behind popular cine actors Suttivelu, Rallapalli and Minister for Education Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao dancing to the tunes of డప్పు విన్యాసాలు (dappu vinyasalu). People cheered `Kalika Devi' dancing with 10 hands before the beginning of the rally to the satisfaction of కాలికాదేవి నృత్యం (Kalikadevi Nrutyam) artiste.

Dilli Rajeswari, Ahuti Prasad, Shivaparvathi, Annapurna and Ramjagan, who entertained people with their comedy in several popular Telugu movies, could not resist dancing to the tunes of కొలాటం (Kolatam) team.

బుట్టబొమ్మలు (Buttabommalu) and తప్పెటగుళ్లు Thapettagullu) proved to be crowd pullers. A tastefully decorated గంగిరెద్దు (Gangireddu) stepping onto a small child and showing its dancing abilities received appreciation from people.

TANA president Bandla Hanumaiah, TANA Foundation chairman Tripuraneni Tirumala Rao and kalotsavalu convener Ch. Udaykumar accompanied the artistes and VIPs to some distance.

It was for the first time many people were watching some of the art forms like పులివేశాలు (Puliveshalu), వీరనాట్యం (Veeranatyam), and కట్టిసాము (Kattisamu).

Hundreds of people watched the rally from rooftops and balconies of apartments. Once the procession reached Vignana Mandiram, a formal inaugural ceremony followed, where Mr. Hanumaiah sought suggestions from people on ways and means to preserve these art forms.

The TANA was also considering providing some pensions to poor artistes.

Courtesy: The Hindu