Kalamandalam Hyderali

Who was Kalamandalam Hyderali?

Kalamandalam Hyderali was one of the best Kathakali singers of his generation, and the first non-Hindu artiste to make a mark in the four-century-old classical dance-drama from Kerala in south India.

Hyderali was a native of Ottupara in Wadakkanchery of Thrissur district. His father, Moidutty, was an exponent of Mappila Paattu. The art world first took notice of little Hyderali’s talent when he won a local-level competition, singing the Malayalam film song "Kalle Kaniville".

It was when he was 11 years old that Hyderali joined Kerala Kalamandalam. Hailing from a poor family, his parents had struggled to pay the admission fee—incidentally "a Hindu and a Christian" helped him secure admission in the premier performing arts institute, as Hyderali later recalls in his autobiography.

At Kalamandalam, he received training gurus like Kalamandalam Neelakantan Nambisan, Sivaraman Nair and Kalamandalam Gangadharan. Madambi Subrahmanian Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri and Kalamandalam Tirur Nambissan were his contemporaries. On passing out, he hunting for a job for a while, before M. K. K. Nair, a patron of the arts, offered him a job in the FACT Kathakali school in Ambalamedu off Kochi along with other gems of Kathakali such as Kalamandalam Keshavan, Kalamandalam Sankara Warrier, Kalamdanalam Sankaran Embranthiri, Vaikom Karunakaran Nair and FACT Baskaran.