We know that actor Vineeth is a product of the State School Arts Festival. We have also seen Vineeth Kumar, another dancing talent, attaining stardom in films. Not many people may know about another talented dancer, M. Vineeth Kumar, from the festival.
He had also shone on the dancing stage of the festival along with actor Vineeth. He and Vineeth had shared among themselves the first prizes in Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattom for three years in a row, and they were both taught by Kalamandalam Saraswathy. Vineeth Kumar had come first in Bharatanatyam in 1984, and in Mohiniyattom in 1985 and 1986. Those were the days when boys could also compete in Mohiniyattom, which was later restricted to girls.
“I think boys should also be allowed to compete in Mohiniyattom as it is the classical dance of Kerala, unlike Bharatanatyam or Kuchipudi,” he says. “If girls could do Kathakali, why cannot boys do Mohiniyattom?”
Vineeth Kumar, who represented Government Ganapath High School, was so good in Mohiniyattom that he had performed it even outside the school festival stages. “I was once invited to do Mohiniyattom along with my teacher, Kalamandalam Saraswathy, at Kalamandalam. I consider that a great honour,” he says. “And it is to her that I owe my achievements in dance.”
The guru is proud about her disciple, too. “He is as talented a dancer as the other Vineeth, but he was not as lucky with opportunities,” she says. “I am glad, though, that he is back to dance, now, as a teacher.”
His students are competing in Mohiniyattom and folk dance at the festival. “I had to stay away from dance for more than 15 years when I had been working for a pharmaceutical company,” he says. “It was not easy to make a living as a male dancer then. Things are slightly better now, with opportunities from television channels; I was the winner of a reality show on a TV channel.”
‘No regrets’He says he has no regrets that he could not make it big as actor Vineeth. “He is a good friend, and he was passionate about films even then,” he says. “I am happy that I could dance and make a mark at the State School Arts Festival, where the competition is of the highest standard.”
