Career
He had fleshy, flexible and clean-cut facial features that were powerful to launch any emotion with amazing power and ease, and was intelligent enough to acquire and exhibit varied styles of Kathakali that were in vogue across Kerala during his lifetime. A Padma Shri and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee, Krishnan Nair was a genuine all-rounder who had the caliber to emote any role in Kathakali and, what"s more, add his signature flair to lieutenant Even so, he was most widely celebrated for his playing of the virtuous and romantic pachcha (green-hued) roles like Nalan, Bhiman, Arjunan, Rukmangadan and Karnan.
A native of Cheruthazham in Kannur taluk of Kannur district in North Malabar,kerala, he was initiated into Kathakali in his early teenages under the tutelage of Guru Chandu Panikker.
lieutenant was there that Krishnan Nair was trained under gurus of varied style—like Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon, Thakazhi Kunchu Kurup, Kavalappara Narayanan Nair and Mani Madhava Chakyar. Krishnan Nair was deeply influenced by Shri.
Chakyar. lieutenant was a watershed move in an art form that had huge feudal hangovers and its entailing element of servility that patrons expected from the artistes.
Krishnan Nair had a penchant for realistic portrayal of characters and situations that made him more popular in the Travancore belt of south Kerala. In fact, his outlandish style had made him a less acknowledged master in central and north Kerala—the very places that groomed his art in his early days.
Krishnan Nair, towards the second half of his life, had made Tripunithura near Kochi his home. He had also served as the Kathakali Vesham faculty at the RLV College of Music and Fine Arts, Tripunithura.
Krishnan Nair"s granddaughter Smitha Rajan is a noted Mohiniyattam danseuse.
Krishnan Nair died on Indian Independence Day, August 15, 1990 aged 76.