Allured by freedom to improvise, Jinesh learns and teaches on the go

JUST out of school in 2002. A trainer in 2004, matching steps with the stalwarts of the time who were coaching students for the Kalolsavam in ottanthullal.

- APARNA NAIR @T'Puram

At 17, Jinesh C was training students who were just two or three years younger. And some of them won prizes too, in not just one edition of the festival but multiple times.

Now 38, this reticent yet immensely dedicated ottanthullal veteran from Kolathur in Malappuram takes forward the lessons he learnt at the Kerala Kalamandalam from the maestro Geethanandan, who passed away a few years ago on stage during a recital, and Kalamandalam Gopinatha Prabha. He then went on to chisel his art with the Kerala Kalalayam at Parayannur with Kalamandalam Parameswaran.

"Thullal had fascinated me for the very freedom it gives for interpretation. It does work within a framework but the way an artist can work his way through, the way he can connect with the audience feeling himself as one among them," Jinesh says.