Mridangam, Tabla, Keyboard, Harmonium, Guitar, Mandolin, Sitar, Drums, Rhythm Pads... Jagath Eesan has mastered them all.

As the secretary of Sri Sai Natyalayam at Nanganallur, a southern suburb of Chennai, Eesan, has been teaching music and dance for the past 22 years and has arranged music and performed in more than thousand bharathnatyam recitals.

He has worked with Anitha Ratnam, Vennira Aadai Nirmala, Kumari Radha, Sri Parvati Ravi Gantasala to name a few. He has also accompanied violin maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman for his dance ballet Jaya Jaya Devi.

‘My father-in -law Mayavaram M S Ramaswamy Pillai established this institution in 1950. Thousands of students including Padma Subramaniam, E V Saroja, Madi Laxmi, Chachu, Kuchala Kumari, Hemamalini have been trained in Sri Sai Natyalayam. My wife, Vijaya Mohana, has been teaching bharathnatyam and nattuvangam. She is the director of this institution.’

Adept at playing more than ten musical instruments, Jagath Eesan says  playing them helps trigger our mental, emotional and physical release, sharpens our memory and insights’. ‘If there’s one thing we need to learn in our lifetime it is to play an instrument,’ he asserts.

‘You have to set aside some time and practice everyday. That’s the mantra I learnt from my gurus,’ says Eesan, who presently trains more than 300 students.

Besides writing and composing varnams, padams and thillanas, Eesan has also written a dance drama which was sponsored by Tamilnadu Iyal Isai Nataga Mandram  and staged at Museum Theatre, Chennai.

About his life’s goals he says, ‘we are trying to get the world appreciate the greatness of our civilization through music and dance. We have been working in this direction all these years and would do so in future too.’

Jagath Eesan can be contacted at 9445170248 / 9444627526