Palghat Raghu Documentary (Part 1/4)

This documentary chronicles the life of Shri Palghat R. Raghu, one of the most prolific and influential mridangists of the 20th century. The footage you see here was released in honor of his 80th birthday celebrations in January 2008.

Directed by Latha Menon
An Iris Films Presentation

Category:

Music

Tags:

• palghat
• raghu
• mani
• iyer
• mridangam
• carnatic
• music
• percussion
• south
• indian
• drums
• tabla
• ghatam
• kanjira
• ravi
• shankar
• alla
• rakha

[sonofthedestroyer]

@shankarrful,

Did Palghat Mani Iyer really create the Kappi Mridangam?

This is interesting. I heard that his peer CS Murugaboopathy created the kutchi mridangam. And apparently older mridangams before their time did not have anything under the outer skin..

I have no idea what the truth is. Many different opinions

[shankarrful]

Kappi mridangam was designed by Palakkad Mani Iyer. The main purpose is that when playing for veena, flute, violin, etc the nadam should not dominate the music. So kappi is often played for instruments. Though most people prefer kuchi, kappi produces more continuation of the tone thereby acting like a thamburu. Also, kappi is very difficult to play because of the thickness of the outer layer of skin. Kappi is played by Raghu sir, Mani Iyer, Rajamani sir, Karaikudi mani sir, J Vaidyanathan, etc.

[maknam]

Palghat Mani Iyer is a class apart !! Nice documentary!

[worlddominator62]

I really don't see how it's "harder" to play with a Kappi mridangam honestly, it's merley just a different tone of sound. I personally don't like Kappi mridangam because of the difficulty it causes to tune. Within one concert, one would have to do major tuning after each piece. I really enjoy the soud of the Kappi though, both types have it's advantages.

[nizmo423]

Yea I agree. I prefer listening to a kutchi mridangam. It is extremely to produce the chaapu on a kappi.

[nizmo423]

WOW!!! His sound production and aesthetics were incredible in those younger days

[baficchio]

a beautyful movie! its most important to preserve and tell for all people the culture of this music; i hope that this can do it for all traditional nd classic music of ever culture...

[esa10th]

i enjoyed this a lot anandski

[manudath]

Thanks a ton!

[navarasan]

Beautiful, thank you so much for this documentary. So many wonderful clips of some of the great masters!