Sadanam K. Harikumaran (also Sadanam K. Harikumar) is a versatile artiste from Kerala in south India, known for his engagements with Indian classical dances and music, besides painting, sculpting and literature.[1]
Harikumaran was born on February 8, 1958, in Peroor village of Palakkad district. His father, K. Kumaran, was a freedom fighter and founder of Gandhi Seva Sadan. His mother, Sarojini Amma, is daughter of Kakkad Karanavappad, one of the founders of Kerala Kalamandalam.[2] He took to Kathakali at an early age, but parallelly did his formal education, completing his masters in his mother tongue Malayalam in the process.
Harikumaran had left Kerala for a while when he worked as a professor in Kathakali at the Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, in West Bengal for five years since 1989. It was during that stint that he began doing painting and sculpting in a prolific way.[3] Back in Kerala, he continued his experiments with plastic arts even as he rejoined Sadanam and subsequently became its principal. For over a decade, Harikumaran has also been making Kathakali costumes (koppu), sometimes in an innovative way, and also experimenting with its make-up (chutti). He also delivers talks at seminars on Kathakali.
As of 2008 he is principal of Gandhi Seva Sadan (Sadanam Kathakali Akademi), he is basically an actor-dancer of Kathakali, but also sings for it besides writing storyplays for the classical dance-drama. Padma Shri Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair is his main Kathakali guru.[4]
Harikumaran is an All India Radio-certified Carnatic musician, having been chiefly guided in that art by the late Prof C.S. Krishna Iyer. He also used to perform Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam (guru: Kalamandalam Leelamma) during his college days.
Harikumaran has penned seven Kathakali storyplays (attakathas). They are Sapamochanam, Karnaparvam, Abhimanyu, Manikantacharitam, Charudattam (based on the story of Julius Caesar), Chitrangada and Puruvamsodayam.