More than 50 years ago Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) set up a dedicated centre of the Fine Arts, a space for music, dance, theatre and literature — FACT Lalithakalakendra. No mean feat given that this was a public sector undertaking, but then the man at the helm of FACT, the late MKK Nayar, was no ordinary man either.
On February 11, 1966, actor Sathyan lit the lamp formally inaugurating the FACT Lalithakalakendra at a programme attended by Rev. Father Joseph Attipetty, the then Archbishop of Verapoly who was among the other luminaries in attendance. The curtains went up on a space for the arts, for the employees and their families. The Udyogmandal Kathakali Club, formed earlier, was on its way to making a name for itself at the time. Its performances, in India and abroad, were held under the aegis of the Kendra.
As the fortunes of FACT waxed and waned, despite the waning, the glory days of the public sector Behemoth are remembered with a sense of loss, and affection. The memories of those involved in its functioning, from its inception and at present, induce not only awe at Nayar’s vision but also at what the Kendra was to the culture-scape of the city. Imagine the who’s who of the Indian cultural scene, luminaries such as MS Subbulakshmi (MS), Guru Vempatti Chinna Satyam, Maharajapuram Santhanam, M Balamuralikrishna, Chitti Babu, Padma Subrahmanyam were among those who performed there! Film personalities were, regularly, part of the monthly programmes.
TRS Menon, who was the general secretary of the Kendra for more than two decades and who later went to become its vice-president, remembers going to Chennai to invite MS for a programme. “The activities were planned according to Nayar’s vision and expectations. We got top-ranked artistes to perform as per his instructions,” he adds.
So, this January it was with great pride that FACT celebrated 51 years of the Kendra, which weathered FACT’s tough years and the management’s waning interest, with a three-day programme. It is a sort of comeback that warrants celebration. “FACT had stopped recruiting for sometime, now we are; financially too things are looking up so we thought of restarting the activities of the Kendra,” says D Nandakumar, Director (Marketing), who is also the vice-president of the Kendra.
For the arts
The Kendra has a dedicated building where the activities were conducted. Those days the monthly subscription was deducted from the employees’ salary, recollects TRS Menon. Over the years, at different times, there had been suggestions that the building be taken over for other activities but fortunately none of the plans materialised. In its heyday FACT had around 10,000 employees which has dwindled to around 2,000.
The subscription aside, the management too provided an annual grant.
Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the late J Jayalalitha in her glory days as actor-performer presented a dance recital here. There are many stories of many greats who performed, some like KJ Yesudas have performed more than once. If it was for a show at FACT, the remuneration too would be discounted, says VP Appukkutta Menon, the present general secretary of the Kendra.
“Thespian NN Pillai was known for not getting on stage until the entire payment was made. But he always made an exception for FACT, accepting only a token payment. That was the prestige associated with performing here,” says PS Anirudhan, one of the joint secretaries of the Kendra.
Not only performing arts, literature too found a space here. It has hosted short story and theatre workshops conducted by prominent personalities. “The Kendra even hosted an amateur drama festival. At the week long fest we had, as judges, people such as Narendra Prasad and TN Gopinathan Nair among others. On the opening and concluding days we had eminent littérateurs attending,” says Menon. He underlines the fact that the revival would have been impossible without the management’s support. A ‘Kaviarangu’ hosted in 1987-88, at the Community Hall, had eminences such as Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri and Olapamanna among those who participated.
Literary discussions too were part of the activities, “We distributed books, allotted a month’s time to read and had the authors to come over for the discussions. Sethu’s Maru Piravi was one such and Sethu was part of the discussion. Later, when he attended a discussion on the same book at the Kerala Sahitya Akademi, he complimented the discussion held here,” says Anirudhan.
MKK Nayar Award
In the early 1990s the MKK Nayar Award was instituted, it was awarded to those who excelled in creative fields. Among the recipients are KJ Yesudas, MT Vasudevan Nair, T Padmanabhan, Kanayi Kunhiraman, M Leelavathy and E Sreedharan. This year the award was revived after 2009 and presented to VJ Kurian, managing director, Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL). From now on management professionals too will be awarded, “If not every year, we plan to give it every alternate year,” says Nandakumar.
The Kendra conducts violin, music and drawing classes. There are plans also to conduct classes in Kathakali music and chenda.
