A popular lawyer and Mridangam artiste passed away in his home town of Calicut in Kerala on June 3 after a brief illness.
Trissur P Sankaran Kutty was 84 years old and died on the day (as per the Hindu Calendar) his wife Devaky passed away a year ago (Indian Newslink, July 1, 2012)
Born in a family of musicians, he learnt the basis of the art from his mother, the late Ammini Brahmanai Amma but evinced keen interest in Mridangam at an early age.
Taught by his brother Trissur P Radhakrishnan, Dr Siva Subramaniam of Jamnagar (Gujarat), he became proficient in the art but decided to pursue the legal profession after obtaining a graduate degree in commerce and law.
Mr Kutty practiced law at District and High courts in Kerala and later at the Supreme Court in Delhi.
His involvement in social and community work related to arts saw him as the President and Secretary of a number of organisations such as the ‘Gosri Sabha’ (Kochi) and Sangeetha Sabhas of Ernakulam, Trissur, Calicut and Kannur.
As a Mridangam artiste, Mr Kutty accompanied several well-known artistes including Lalgudi Jayaraman, Dr Balamurali Krishna, Srirangam Rajagopal, S Raveendran, Radha Namboothiri Neyyatinkara Vasudevan, Raveendranath and P Leela.
He left behind four daughters (Sobhana Madhavan, Asha Sivadas, Usha Muraleedharan and Vasantha Sasikumar Narayanan) and a son (Sasi Nambissan), Vice-President of Auckland Malayali Samajam and Director of Aiswarya Entertainments Limited, which produced ‘Taj Mahal,’ a dance drama last year.
