His heart beats best to the drum

A. Bharath Kumar, the drum artiste who has been playing at the 18 holy steps in the Sabarimala sannidhanam every year, says it is one of his life’s gifted moments to play at the famous shrine.

‘Percussion and Perfection’ has become a tagline for the young drum artiste Bharath Kumar. The percussionist handles all percussion instruments but he wins over people’s hearts especially by playing the drum. “In simple words, you can call me also as a drummer”, said the artiste while explaining his passion towards drumbeats.

The young drummer, a resident of Gandhi Nagar, is one of those who perform before the 18 holy steps in the Sabarimala shrine and he does it every year. “I am a spiritual person and this gives me an inspiration,” Bharath said.

Talking about his career after studying Visual Communication, he recalls taking part in national level short film competitions where the Enitharan film team was a competitor too. He made two short films Aarai (Room) to educate people not to consume alcohol and Kadaal (Sea) in his college days.

In Kadaal, the lives of youngsters were portrayed enjoying their college days simply wandering around and getting carried away by some women characters and the playful time ends with the pathetic death of a guy.  The film was shot on Thirvanmayur beach.

At college level, he earned an entitlement of Junior Film Maker in 2010. “From my college days I am having huge contacts and rapport with the eminent film fraternity, it has helped me to grow both as a musician and creative person in this field,” he added.

He comes through as a multi-talented personality with music and spirituality running in his veins. As a musician, he believes in “Sruthi Matha, Layam Pitha” — first mother and father are Sruthi and Rhythm respectively”.  A composition of a country song ‘Bharat mere Bharat’ related to our PM is under process, with voice recording on next week, he added.

He has been singing since the age of five years in shows as a child artiste. His other source of inspiration was his beloved music teacher, guru Nithyanandanam, from whom he learnt the harmonium first. He was inspired to take up singing by his mother Saraswati Arjunam.

He hails from a musical background  — his mother is a vocalist Carnatic musician and father is a background singer in the Tamil film industry. Bharath had been nurtured in symphonic ambience since childhood.

“I personally wrote the lyrics of a special song in Tamil for the former Chief Minister Jayalalitha ma’am, ‘Anbu Panbu Paasam,’ which I handed over to her and got her appreciation”, Bharath shares enthusiastically. And that’s how he came up as a music composer as he got the appraisals from Janaki Amma in 2011 and Kamal Haasan in 2013. His own concern, Bharath Entertainment and his band Sruthilaya are going to hold a spiritual ‘Samarpanam to the almighty’ in a Navarathri concert this time. “Practice is on,” he informed. Talking about collaborating on compositions with singer Madhu

Balakrishnan, he said they were one of his unforgettable projects. The young man is now also composing a few Sanskrit Stotras relating to Sringeri Jagadgurus.