Soorya Krishnamoorthy: The name that became a cultural movement

Thiruvananthapuram: Some people make a name for themselves in a particular field. Soorya Krishnamurthy, however, did it differently. He built a cultural movement around a name he made his own. A mechanical engineer who spent 27 years at ISRO working with rockets, satellites and space technology, he eventually launched himself into the wider world of the arts, where light, sound, music, theatre and cinema became his new vocabulary.

He created a new language of light and sound for the stage, showing how they could become storytellers in their own right. As he takes his final bow, the name ‘Soorya’ remains etched in Kerala’s cultural history. Born Nataraja Krishnamurthy in Kottayam on April 11, 1951, he was the son of T Nataraja Pillai, who served as Kerala’s chief engineer, and C Saraswathi Amma, an activist with the Gandhi Peace Foundation.

After studying at Thiruvananthapuram Model School, Arts College and TKM Engineering College, Kollam, he graduated in mechanical engineering in 1971. He joined ISRO in 1972 and spent the next 27 years as a scientist and engineer, working alongside several prominent scientists, including A P J Abdul Kalam. In 1999, he took voluntary retirement and turned fully to the arts.

The Chennai spark
The Soorya Stage and Film Society, launched in 1977, began with a clear intention to bring people together through art. That simple idea soon became Soorya’s guiding motto: Integration Through Culture. The idea for the Soorya Festival took shape in Chennai, over a conversation that brought together K J Yesudas, Padma Subrahmanyam, Mavelikkara Krishnankutty Nair and Krishnamurthy. They wanted to create in Kerala a festival on the lines of those held in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere, bringing artists and art forms together on one platform, and decided that Thiruvananthapuram would host the festival every year from September 1.

From the meeting, they went straight to the Valluvar Kottam residence of legendary singer M S Subbulakshmi. She agreed to perform at the festival every year, if her health permitted. It was an auspicious beginning for the fledgling venture. The first edition opened with a Yesudas concert on October 1. Krishnankutty Nair promised to play the mridangam for the concert for as long as he could. A week later, on October 8, Padma Subrahmanyam presented a dance recital.

And with that, the Soorya Festival was born. For 43 years, until just before the Covid pandemic, Yesudas continued to perform at the festival. Over the years, Soorya grew far beyond an annual event, becoming a cultural platform that brought music, dance, theatre, cinema, poetry, painting and other art forms together on one stage. It gave established artists and newcomers alike a space to perform, while pursuing Krishnamurthy’s larger vision of bringing the many facets of Indian art under one umbrella.

The language of light, and shadows too
One of the most distinctive chapters of Krishnamurthy’s artistic journey began when light and sound became more than stagecraft. He gave them a language of their own, turning them into characters that could speak, evoke, and tell stories. History, mythology, social themes, and different shades of human emotion unfolded as sweeping visual experiences through his imaginative play of light and sound.

He carried the experiment beyond the conventional stage with mobile light and sound shows and his theatrical production Theatre of Freedom. On an ordinary stage, actors speak, and the story moves forward. On Krishnamurthy’s stage, light spoke too. Sound took on form. And together, they became storytellers. Another significant work was Melvilasam, a play built around a court-martial that later found its way to the screen as a film of the same name.

Soon, large scale spectacles that brought together history, culture, art, light and sound became a signature of his work. He helped shape and direct several major events, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the National Games, turning public occasions into immersive spectacles of light, sound and soon, large scale spectacles that brought together history, culture, art, light and sound became a signature of his work. He helped shape and direct several major events, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the National Games, turning public occasions into immersive spectacles of light, sound and story telling.