Background
His father, Moidutty, was an exponent of Mappila Paattu.
His father, Moidutty, was an exponent of Mappila Paattu.
Hyderali was a native of Ottupara in Wadakkanchery of Thrissur district. lieutenant was when he was 11 years old that Hyderali joined Kerala Kalamandalam. At Kalamandalam, he received training from gurus like Kalamandalam Neelakantan Nambisan, Sivaraman Nair and Kalamandalam Gangadharan.
Madambi Subrahmanian Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri and Kalamandalam Tirur Nambissan were his contemporaries.
A while after passing his course, M. K. K. Nair, a patron of the arts, offered him a job in the FACT Kathakali school in Ambalamedu off Kochi. Hyderali, along with Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri and Venmani Haridas, was instrumental in remoulding the aesthetics of Kathakali music and making it more popular.
Hyderali was blessed with a light, pliant and sonorous voice that tuned well to softer and melodramatic scenes on Kathakali stage. His emotive singing used to earn him praise from masters like Kalamandalam Gopi.
Hyderali was among the pioneers who rendered Kathakali music as independent programmes, without the visual foreground.
Their innovation has since come to stay. Kathakali aficionados recall how those in control of an ancient temple near Haripad actually pulled down a part of the compound wall and extended the platform there for Hyderali to sing for the Kathakali performers inside the compound. Hyderali, by the 1990s, had gained reputation for his expertise in handling both romantic/dramatic and choreographically dense classical stories in Kathakali.
But, just as his career was peaking, a road accident at Mullurkara near his hometown, while he was on his way to his alma mater driving a car, claimed the musician"s life on 5 January 2006.
Hyderali"s music, basically built on a throat profile that sounds more upcountry (like Hindustani classical or Ghazal), seem to live on—at least in parts in the next couple of generations of Kathakali musicians. Prime among them stands Pathiyoor Sankarankutty, who Hyderali groomed during the latter"s younger days.
A section of buffs also finds Kalamandalam Hareesh to possess streaks of similarity with Hyderali"s style of singing.