1,001 artistes take part in Keralolsavam carnival

Indian football legend Dr I M Vijayan did the kick-off in the presence of a large gathering which witnessed the lining up of the flags of the 32 countries participating in the World Cup.

Indian ambassador Dr Deepak Mittal, Indian Parliament member A M Arif, Indian Cultural Centre president P N Baburajan and Radio Malayalam CEO Anwar Hussain were the chief guests. President Anand Nair delivered the welcome speech in the presence of secretary Riyas Ahmed, adviser Rajeshwar Govind, Premjith and chairperson Lata Anand Nair.
Arif and Dr Vijayan, along with sponsors and Samajam office-bearers presented ‘Prathibha Puraskaram’ to individuals in their respective areas of achievement. Lifetime Achievement Award for prominent businessman A K Usman, the co-founder of Al Muftah Rent A Car and MES Indian School, was received by his sons, Dr Fuad Usman and Ziyad Usman. The other awards were received by Safirurahman (sports), Supriya Jagadeep (education), K V Abdu Salam (social service), Nabisakutty Abdul Karim (business), Mallika Babu (arts) and Linsha Annie George (health).

The programme started with ‘Chenda Melam’ and concluded with a dance performance by over 500 artistes to a folk song written by Samajam member Vimal Vasudev and sung by the Kanal Nadanpattu Sangam Qatar. More than 100 children presented a football dance under the training of Shafeek XDC. Children’s folk dance, Oppana (Munira Basheer), Kerala Natanam (Seema teacher), Mohiniyattam (Kalamandalam Sini), fusion retro (Shamina), kids dance (Loyola International School), semi classical (Lakshana, Swasthi Academy), fusion dances (Skills Development Centre), Seetha Kalyanam (Athira Sunita, Kalakshetra), Naga dance (Devika), semi classical (RLV Seema teacher), Contemporary (Susan Deema), Kathak fusion (Reshma Sreekumar), skating (Johnny, Mindmaster Academy) and Qatar Manjappada’s band melam followed.
The Samajam programmes started with Kathakali under the leadership of show director Krishnanunni. The items included O N V Kurup’s famous poem Amma, depiction of Raja Ravi Varma’s drawings, folk songs and dances. The audience danced to the songs of Qatar’s famous folk song groups Kanal and Kaithola. Kalakairali Divya teacher arranged steps of the folk song, Thiruvathira and the kids tribal dance.
The show associates were popular anchors Arun Pillai Praveen, Manju Manoj, Prema Sarath Chandran, Jayashree Suresh, Aku Akbar and Rajeev Anand. Ayesha Fatima, the rising child anchor, moderated the children’s programmes.
The Indian Nurses Association (UNIQ) which is associated with Malayali Samajam provided medical support. Mini Benny was the head of about 250 co-ordinators. There were numerous volunteers as well.