File photo of a performance by TM Krishna in previous editions of the Urur Olcott Kuppam Vizha | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
There is a sense of urgency at Urur Olcott Kuppam a week before the vizha on February 23.
The Ellaiamman temple, the epicentre of the festival, is laced with carefully placed scaffolding. Most of the construction and painting needs to be completed in time for the event.
The streets are hence being spruced up and small garbage trucks are bussing away debris lining the road. Soon, there will be boards, banners, mic sets and a makeshift stage outside the temple.
Until then, a restless commotion of preparation persists among the organisers as people flit in and out of the Vettiver Collective (NGO) office. The cats and dogs of the kuppam however, are unaffected by the construction noise and are languishing in the afternoon sun.
“If you leave everything spick and span, what will the volunteers do during the beach clean up (on February 18 as part of the festival),” jokes singer TM Krishna to K Saravanan, one of the main organisers of the project.
The Urur Olcott Kuppam vizha, one of Chennai’s most popular counter-culture festivals, is happening after a six-year hiatus and Saravanan says that the city has missed much.
File photo of Urur Olcott Kuppam Vizha at the beach in Besant Nagar, Chennai. | Photo Credit: KARUNAKARAN M
For one, the Ellaiamman temple, a seminal part of Urur Olcott kuppam’s history, has grown twice in size. It is the site of the festival and one of the key reasons for the existence of the area’s history and lore. The temple has required refurbishing for several years. With contributions from several benefactors both from the area and from those who have been associated with Urur Olcott Kuppam, a grander manifestation of the temple has been created.
“In the past, the stage of the vizha faced the sea. This time, the backdrop of the stage will be the newly constructed Ellaiamman temple,” says Saravanan. On February 23, alongside the cultural festival, the temple’s raja gopuram will be inaugurated.
Besides this, every resident has grown a tad older but has not lost any vigour. Children who were once part of the audience will now be taking the stage as students from Olcott school will be part of a villupaatu performance. Young women from Avvai Illam will be wielding the parai as part of an all-girls ensemble. Fisherfolk from the region will also take the stage to sing the hymns that form their playlist at sea.
R Sundaramurthy, treasurer, Urur Olcott Kuppam Fishermen’s Sangam, says that when the festival began several years ago, it proved to people of the region that Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam were not limited to the upper class. It received as much cheer as the parai and villupaatu performances of the past.
It also helped both people from the area and outside gain a better sense of the history of their region. Now, an evolution of their landscape, their local deities, the old buildings in the region as well as the flora, fauna and the changing nature of the sand dunes near the kuppam, has been documented for the future. Urur Olcott kuppam cannot be erased from the map.
“Urur was once surrounded by trees. Just take one look at the old MGR film Padagotti. It will show you how the area once looked,” says Saravanan.
The intention of bringing the ‘outsider’ back to the kuppam is one steeped in an artistic sense of harmony and belonging to a bigger world.
R Sundaramurthy and Saravanan
Singer TM Krishna who has performed at the event since its first edition and has been a part of the core planning committee since its inception says that there is a larger sense of oneness often exhibited at the event. “It is not that the middle class and the privileged bring our music to the village. Instead, the people of Urur Olcott Kuppam invite us to perform here,” he says.
The artiste who has been promoting the event on social media often speaks of this dichotomy with a sense of learning attached to his journey. This probably explains his investment in the festival and the friendships that he seems to have fostered in the area. To commemorate this, he will be performing a kutchery too with his friends. “Look out for some surprises,” he says. He adds that the event will finish with a cinema song-filled evening by Motta Maadi Music.
Six years is a long gap between events and COVID seems to have added several years on the relative time-scale but one thing seems evident. The spirit of the Urur Olcott Kuppam vizha has not died down. Catch the fervour at the festival.
Urur Olcott Kuppam Vizha 2024 will be on February 23 outside the Ellaiamman temple in Besant Nagar. Entry is free.
