In a first, the music-dance festival season 2014-15 extended itself in space and time to appear on Pongal Day as Urur-Olcott Kuppam Vizha on the seashore near Elliot’s beach. Again, in a first, the Vizha was a sangamam of classical and folk — beginning with a robust beating of parai (drum) by a group of boys, settling into villuppattu by a group of charming girls from the kuppam, moving on to Carnatic music by an ensemble of Jayanth on flute, Vishaal on chitra veena, Rajeev (violin), Praveen (mridangam), Sai Subramaniam (morsing), Sunil Kumar (ganjira) and ending with an enthralling dance performance by perhaps the youngest members of Anita Guha’s Bharatanjali. The following day, it would be pariattam, villuppattu and kutcheri by Unnikrishnan and his team; the vizha would come to a close with ‘Krishnan Tudhu’ by the Kattaikuttu Sangam.
It was a kuppam festival, hosted by fishermen on their space, which includes the sand and the sea : three young kuppam girls masterfully compèred the programme, kuppam elder Kannappan welcomed the audience pointing out how their habitat preceded the buildings of Besant Nagar and how the kuppam, unfortunately, was spoken/written of only with reference to calamities like the tsunami. “Hope the stigma would be erased with the kalai nigazhchi, a positive event,” he said.
Fishermen were on hand to set up the stage, remove it, prepare the dance floor, lay carpets, arrange chairs to seat the audience. Untried open space presents logistical challenges. A group of unconnected volunteers got together to organise the event. “Funds for the festival were raised democratically using NalandaWay Foundation's crowd-funding platform,” said CEO Sriram. “Supporters from across the world contributed.” Friends were roped in to shoot a time-lapse video of the event, take care of press-publicity. Rajiv Menon’s MyScreenProduction offered to document the event on film.
Kids painted the kuppam walls and abandoned cars made for screens. Everyone joined in a four-hour clean-up. Outreach included bhajan rounds in the area, “oor sollu”, recitals by children’s groups on the beach, T.M. Krishna’s hour-long kutcheri near the skating rink. A facebook page was created to put up pictures and blogs written for circulation.
The vizha opened in a performance space spiffed-up with beautiful panels and a rising sun on a stick as backdrop, and I would like to think the 500-strong audience came in with an open mind. Terrific experiment, democratisation of music, said sociologist Shiv Visvanathan who was in the audience.
There was democratisation of physical space as well: Construction debris, sand-mounds, the vehicle-repair hut, broken cars, fish-trucks/boats/nets and scampering dogs made no difference to the quality of the arts performed. Musical, cultural, social landmark, said Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Spreading value of music in a natural setting, commented scientist MS Swaminathan. “Absolutely taken in by the location, not a place where you will see nicely-dressed people attend a concert; wish there were more people from the local community in the audience,” observed yoga teacher Madeleine Sears.
“Happy it is happening on Pongal,” said Akila, who studies in class XII and lives in the kuppam. “We don't practise our traditional dance/music, so this is a reminder of what we are losing.” Her aunt nodded. “Kids will now take up pariattam/thappattam/villupattu, thanks to clean entertainment on an auspicious day.”
Fisher woman Baby, 59, said she loved the sound of the veena. “I've heard Carnatic music on TV; this is wonderful, goddess Elliamman and the people are happy.” Deeply satisfying, said the artistes. “A first for us, a wonderful experience to play into the sea breeze; would love to come back,” said violinist Rajeev.
My motto is to reach out to everyone with dance, said Anita Guha, happy how ‘Thaye Yeshoda’ and the Ardhanareeswara dances got repeated applause. “I've always nurtured a wish to perform on the beach. A dancer has to be ready for all platforms,” said a young dancer.
What does the Vizha amount to? It is a trend-setter, the template of which can be replicated in other areas. So is Chennai ready to embrace a kaleidoscopic coming together of classical and folk arts?
