Kalamandalam Padmanabhan Nair (1928–2007) was an eminent Kathakali

Kathakali

Kathakali is a highly stylized classical Indian dance-drama noted for the attractive make-up of characters, elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the anchor playback music and complementary percussion...

 exponent, equally known for his capacities as a tutor, theoretician and author of a few authentic texts on the classical dance-drama from Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

 in south India.. A son of the Kathakali guru Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon

Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon

Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon was a pivotal figure in the history of Kathakali, having played a crucial role in remoulding and refining its grammar in the famed Kalluvazhi tradition of the classical dance-drama from Kerala in south India...

, Padmanabhan Nair was one of the early-batch students in Kerala Kalamandalam

Kerala Kalamandalam

Kerala Kalamandalam , lately renamed as Kalamandalam Deemed University of Art and Culture, is a major centre for learning Indian performing arts, especially those that developed in the southern state of India, with the special emphasis on Kerala. It is situated in the village of Cheruthuruthy in...

, where he subsequently joined as a teacher and retired as its principal in 1990. He died on April 3, 2007, at his home in Shoranur

Shoranur

Shoranur is a town and a municipality in Palakkad district, Kerala,located on the banks of the Bharathapuzha River spread over an area of 32.28 km2.it is a major transport hub , having the largest railway station in the state .Kerala Kalamandalam which is the premier centre for the learning...

, near his alma mater, where he led his post-professorial life with wife and Mohiniyattam practitioner, Kalamandalam Sathyabhama.

Early life

Padmanabhan Nair was born on October 7, 1928 in Kuruvattoor near the Kathakali village of Vellinezhi

Vellinezhi

Vellinezhi is a small but culturally crucial village located in Palakkad district of Kerala in southern India. The sylvan, rugged land is located on the banks of the Kunti, a slender rivulet that forms tributary to the broad, west-flowing Bharatapuzha that criss-crosses central Kerala in southern...

 in the erstwhile Valluvanad territory, now in Palakkad

Palakkad

Palakkad , formerly known as Palghat, is a municipality and a town in the state of Kerala in southern India, spread over an area of 26.60 km2.The city is situated about north of state capital Thiruvananthapuram. It is the administrative headquarters of Palakkad District...

 district. After primary schooling, he joined Kalamandalam when he was ten years old. His master was his father, under whom he learnt the art form for over a decade. Srikrishnan in the classical storyplay Subhadraharanam was his debut stage. Padmanabhan Nair also underwent Kathakali studies at the PSV Natyasangham, Kottakkal, before being recruited in Kalamandalam in 1951.

Publications

Padmanabhan Nair has co-authored a book on his father-guru Pattikkamthodi. But his more weighty works are 'Kathakali Vesham' (1980) and 'Cholliyattam' (2000), both two-volume tomes that deal with the grammar and aesthetics of classical storyplays in the highly evolved Kalluvazhi school of Kathakali of north-central Kerala. He was a winner of the Government of India's Central Sangeet Natak Akademi

Sangeet Natak Akademi

Sangeet Natak Akademi is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India.-History:...

award (1994) and the Kerala government's Kathakali Purasakaram (2006).