Thursday 5 February 2009

Keremane Shambhu Hegde




Four days of no newspaper made me miss this bit till a relative told me. The greatest Yakshagana artiste of our times is no more. He shall be sorely missed.

3 comments:

ಪುರುಷೋತ್ತಮ ಬಿಳಿಮಲೆ said...

Shri Keremane Shambhu Hegade

A tribute

Shri Keremane Shambhu Hegade ( Born, June 10, 1938) is no more. He expired on February 3, 2009 while performing his favorite character Shri Rama in an episode called Kusha –Lava, at his birth place called Gunavante, a tiny village in Honnavara Taluk, Karnataka State. He has been performing Badagu tittu (Northern Style) Yakshagana from more than 50 years. His contribution to the development of Yakshagana is unique and unparallel. He worked as an artist, organizer, innovator and researcher. His success in all these roles is highly commendable. He brought century old Yakshagana into a new height with his brilliant ideas. Through his ‘Idagunji Mahaganapathi Yakshagana Mandali’, Shri Shambhu Hegade brought freshness into every aspect of the Yakshagana theater. Though he is the son of another great artist, Keremane Shivarama Hegde, Mr. Shambhu Hegade, made Yakshagana of his own with his luminous ideas and an imaginative application of them with out breaking the traditional canvas. Some of the characters portrayed by Shambhu Hegde were that of Dhuryodhana, Dushtabuddhi, Karna, Shrirama, Hanuman, Kartavirya, and Jarasandha. As we all know, originally Yakshagana was performed for the rural audience, but with his command on artists, Shambhu Hegade changed the history and gave new dimension to Yakshagana theater which was appreciated even by the urban audience. He broke the linguistic boundaries of the theater and performed in many parts of India. Few times, he took up the arduous task of presenting Yakshagana to global audience. As an excellent demonstrator, he introduced the art to the various linguistic communities like Tamilians, Telugas, Marathis, and Maleyalis and North Indians. In his troupe he always encouraged the artists to introduce many varieties of novelty which have enriched the art. Above all, with his extraordinary command on English and Hindi language, he became a powerful ambassador of the art during all the Regional, National, and International tours of the ‘Idagunji mela’ He is responsible for the many honors the troupe received from the various reputed organizations. He gave the Yakshagana Theater a place of honor and distinction. He was awarded Sangit Nataka Academy and Karnataka State awards for his unique contribution to the theater. He served as the president of Karnataka Janapada Academy and also a member of Central Sangith Natak academy. He was a member of the Governing body of the South Zone Cultural Centre.

Shri Shambhu Hegde, revolutionized the Yakshagana theater. His influence could be seen in almost at every stage of the Yakshagana performance today. This was just possible because of his rare genius, untiring efforts, spirit of enquiry and experiment. Yakshagana theater gained liveliness and new appeal. Now, the Yakshgana could effectively compete with other major forms of theater and hold its head high as a great art form.

I salute Shri Shambhu Hegade for his remarkable contribution for the art.

P. Bilimale
New Delhi-110070

a fan said...

I have one offtopic request.
Incase, if a person is travelling to Mysore for a weekend from chennai or bangalore, what would you suggest as an ideal itinerary to visit all the heritage places in and around Mysore?
(i know, there can be 100s of info if one does a search in google, but wanted an opinion from a native kannadiga mysorian)

maybe, you could write a post about it :)

thanks in advance.

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