Pallavur Appu Marar

Pallavur Appu Marar (1928-2002) was an Indian percussionist, widely considered to be a maestro in the Pallavur (Palakkad) style of thayambaka, edakka, sopana sangeetham, melam and panchavadyam. He was the eldest of the three brothers, the other two being Pallavur Manian Marar and Pallavur Kunhikuttan Marar, who formed the famed Pallavur trio.

Biography

Appu Marar was born in 1928, at Pallavur, a small hamlet in Palakkad district, in the south Indian state of Kerala, to Shankaran Marar and Ammini. His father, a nomad, left the young Appu and his mother, when he was one year old, throwing the family into poverty. Ammini was forced to remarry Subramania Iyer, and had two more sons, Manian and Kunhikuttan, who, years later, completed the Pallavur trio. Appu Marar saw his father for the first time, when he was 17 years old, by which time, he had already mastered those traditional percussion instruments and had started performing at various temples in Kerala.

By the time, Appu Marar died in a private hospital in Palakkad at 4.00am on 8 December 2002, due to age related illnesses, he had already performed at many stages including in Russia and at 47 Thrissur Poorams and 60 Nemmara Velas. He performed, without break, at Thrissur pooram, heading the panchavadyam for Paremekkavu Devaswom from 1960 till his death in 2002. The film was also screened at the Festival of South Asian Documentaries at Kathmandu 3–6 October 2013. The film shows many interviews with Appu Marar's contemporaries and family members. Another award of the same name, Pallavur Appu Marar Award has also been instituted by the renowned ayurvedic institution, Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala.

Publications

Appu Marar has written a book, Pr̲amāṇaṃ: ātmakatha (Theory and Biography), an autobiography in part, but also containing theories and arguments on traditional Kerala music. The book was co-authored by Madanan.

Crescent Music has released an audio on compact disc, which has the recording of many of Appu Marar's performance on edaka.