musical exponents from Kerala. Among the younger generation, child prodigy violin wizard L.Athira Krishna and Carnatic vocalist P. Unnikrishnan have made their musical impact in the international arena, thus keeping the regal tradition of Carnatic music alive. Kerala also has a significant presence of Hindustani music as well. The king of Travancore, Swathi Thirunal patronaged and contributed much to the Hindustani Music. Popular music Popular music of Kerala had a linear development along with classical music of the region, till the branches separated. The popular music in Kerala is enriched by its highly developed film music branch. Other forms of popular music include light music, pop music and devotional songs. Kathakali Music The language of the songs used for Kathakali is Manipravalam, a mixture of Malayalam and Sanskrit. Even though most of the songs are set in ragas based on the microtone-heavy Carnatic music, there is a distinct style of plain-note rendition, which is known as the Sopanam style. This typically Kerala style of rendition takes its roots from the temple songs which used to be sung (continues even now at several temples) at the time when Kathakali was born. The foremost artist was Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair. Kalamandalam at Vallathol Nagar, near Shornur, Trissur in Kerala is an important training center for this art. Since Kathakali is essentially a temple art one of the greatest ever Kathakali singer, Hyderali, who was a Muslim, had to face stiff resistance which eventually was swept away by the immense force of popularity. But Hyderali softened the original Asura nature of the art. Kalamandalam Gangadharan, who remains the last exponent of the original tradition has almost retired from the scene. Malayalam film music Film music, which refers to playback singing in the context of Indian music, forms the most important canon of popular music in India. The film music of Kerala in particular is the most popular form of music in the state. Before Malayalam cinema and Malayalam film music developed, the Keralites eagerly followed Tamil and Hindi film songs, and that habit has stayed with them till now. The history of Malayalam film songs begins with the 1948 film Nirmala which was produced by Artist P.J. Cherian who introduced play-back singing for the first time in the film. The film's music composer was P. S. Divakar, and the songs were sung by P. Leela, T. K. Govinda Rao, Vasudeva Kurup, C. K. Raghavan,