Ahead of Madras Day, delve into Chennai's eclectic arts scene, its various intersections, and the initiatives that strive to unite the city's communities through creative expression.
Published Aug 19, 2023 | 10:17 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 21, 2023 | 11:55 AM
Chennai, with its rich cultural heritage, has become a melting pot of artistic endeavours. (Medai/Prakriti Foundation)
In the heart of Chennai’s cultural tapestry, an array of artistic vignettes unfolds, each weaving a chapter of the city’s evolving narrative. From the intimate confines of a theatre festival to the vibrant steps of a Bharatanatyam dancer, who is donning a curator’s hat for the first time, to an exploration of a new kind of vocabulary in dance — Chennai’s artistic vitality takes centre stage.
Amid this kaleidoscope of expression, the city also grapples with the complexities of tradition and innovation, seeking to bridge divides and carve out spaces for collective artistic experiences.
As Chennai approaches its 384th anniversary, we delve into how the city’s cultural evolution harmonises at the juncture of heritage and progress.
Here are a few of cultural events happening on Saturday, 19 August, across the city:
Off Chennai’s TTK Road, at Medai – The Stage, a black box theatre that has been gaining significant traction this year, this weekend is a celebration of theatre.
For the first time, the city will play host to a unique theatre festival titled the Mini Five Theatre Festival curated by Charles Baby, founder of Chennai Art Theatre and Medai.
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With three shows — one on 18 August and two on 19 August — the festival will showcase the works of six theatre directors and ten theatre groups who will dole out their style of theatre imaginatively, in five minutes.
Sitting in Medai, Bengaluru, and getting ready to return to Chennai for the festival, Charles is happy with the overall reception of the festival. “We are at 60 percent, from a ticket sales perspective already,” he says, “And we still have three days to go!”
At Nandanam Extension, off Chamiers Road, on the terrace of her independent home that has, for a while, doubled up as her dance studio, young Bharatanatyam dancer Kavya Ganesh is gearing up to wear a curator’s hat with her new venture, Shambhavi Soirees.
The first episode on 19 August will feature a performance by Bharatanatyam dancer Apoorva Jayaraman and will be followed by a conversation that will have two people — one, an artiste, and another, an audience member with no knowledge of the classical arts — reflect on the dance and share their perspective on it.
Two evenings ago, Kavya announced she had only two spots left, highlighting the enthusiasm among Chennai’s residents to engage with diverse forms of art.
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In Besant Nagar, at Spaces, on 19 August, the 25-year-old cultural institution Prakriti Foundation is getting ready to present The Endless Mind, a collaboration between Vyuti Dance Company and Fragment of Light.
In a few weeks, Prakriti will announce the eighth edition of the Short + Sweet Festival that has, over the years, not only brought talent in theatre to the fore but also fostered a sense of community and a spirit of camaraderie among the city’s residents.
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At the Narada Gana Sabha, the annual Natyarangam Festival concluded earlier this week, featured more than five dancers who presented full-length works inspired by this year’s theme — Pasu-Pakshi.
This set of events is just a fraction of the city’s vibrant arts landscape that has managed to capture my attention.
In a city where cultural events are in abundance and where the mantra of the moment is “less is more”, “small is big”, “intimate is expansive”, the arts scene is also desperately seeking attention on aspects that need a systemic intervention from everyone who belongs to the ecosystem of the arts — artistes, arts patrons, curators, presenters, and audiences.
This thriving scene, however, is not devoid of intricacies.
Eminent personalities, who have contributed significantly to shaping the city’s artistic landscape, add their insights.
Dancer-curator Dr Anita Ratnam, a cultural influencer who has watched the city’s cultural landscape transition through decades, characterises the city’s current state as one of “frenzy”. Dr Ratnam’s description of herself on her Instagram profile as “Cultural Sherpa” also means she has been both a participant and an observer of the complexities of Chennai’s cultural fabric.
“The image that comes to my mind when I think of the cultural scene in the city is that of a snake eating its own tail. The bold and brave experimentation of the ’90s that defined the cultural landscape of the city when I was performing and curating no longer exists. Chennai is grappling precariously somewhere in between trying to hold onto its old-world culture and attempting to dream and plant something radical,” she opines.
Ranvir Shah, the founder of Prakriti Foundation, a key cultural catalyst in the cultural space, reflects on the evolution of Chennai, a city he has witnessed transform from Madras to its present form.
Theatrical readings from the works of Abhay K at Raw Mango, Teynampet. (Prakriti Foundation)
He believes that over the years, the city has become a “poly-cultural space that prides itself on an audience that is alert, aware, engaged, and fully conversant with its choices in terms of the consumption of the arts.”
According to Ranvir, the proliferation of performance spaces — something that didn’t exist 25 years ago — has significantly enriched the cultural environment of the city.
This growth has enabled a diverse range of audiences to actively participate in and appreciate various forms of arts, ranging from the traditional to the contemporary, edgy, and experimental.
A month ago, the Mixtura Vizha, organised by Shreya Nagarajan Singh (SNS) Arts Development Consultancy, highlights the city’s ongoing efforts to rejuvenate public spaces with live performances.
The event showcased a diverse array of performances, including Tamil rap, opera, Sufi Qawwali, a one-act dance presentation, Carnatic music, and traditional acrobatics.
These performances were held at various locations, such as Chennai Central Metro, Gandhi Mandapam, and Anna Nagar Tower Park.
“You see, today with OTT and social media, the thirst for watching live performances is significantly decreasing,” says Shreya Nagarajan Singh of SNS Arts Development Consultancy.
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“Mixtura Vizha was conceived not only as our contribution to public spaces but also to rekindle the experience and joy people derive from watching a live performance. The shared energy in public spaces like parks, metro stations, open grounds, and memorials helps develop social cohesion, stimulate cultural tourism, and repurpose public spaces,” Shreya explains.
While initiatives like the above may be one of the ways forward to create a sense of cultural collectivism, the city continues to grapple with the most obvious problem staring right at its face — the gap that exists in the arts — between the northern and southern parts of the city.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that there is an obvious cultural, social, political, and economic divide between what we — generically — refer to as north and south Chennai,” affirms musician, author and activist, TM Krishna.
He adds, “Having said that, it is also crucial we are careful while using these expressions because honestly, expressions themselves can be ghettoising and problematic. There’s no denying that this divide is exacerbated by the caste spectrum of the people who dominate these neighbourhoods.”
Further elucidating the conspicuous divide in the city’s cultural offerings, TM Krishna states, “The fact that the Brahmanical community largely dominates the southern part of the city and the fact that it intermingles with the caste, class, and economic elite in the southern suburbs gives the arts that they patronise much greater importance; north Chennai, on the other hand, is largely dominated by the fisherfolk, Dalit and other marginalised communities and we already know those neighbourhood are accorded lesser access to modern infrastructure and care in terms of human development.”
“As a result, the cultural richness and diversity that exists in that part of the city hardly ever come to the fore. It’s about time we come face-to-face with systemic discrimination like this,” he asserts.
Artistes performing at the Chennai Kalai Theru Vizha. (Supplied)
For over a decade now, TM Krishna and his social initiative, Sumanasa Foundation, have been committed to bridging this gap and doing it with thought, sensitivity, and imagination.
Take for instance, the TM Krishna-backed Chennai Kalai Theru Vizha, previously known as the Urur Olcott Kuppam Vizha, an annual volunteer and community-driven cultural festival that has stood the test of time and is gearing up to unfold soon.
Speaking about it, TM Krishna says that the festival “is an attempt to celebrate the sights, sounds, and aesthetics of the arts that exist in north Chennai and enable those who live in other parts of the city to experience that and while doing so, also allow folks in the northern part of the city access to art forms that have been kept away from them because of different forms of discrimination.”
The beauty of Chennai is also the fact that across its length and breadth, there are fascinating pieces of history, arts, aesthetics, and stories; some hidden, some waiting to be told.
It’s crucial therefore to instill in those that belong here a sense of culture and history in a way they identify with the city beyond its stereotypical connotations of the Marina beach, filter coffee, and Superstar.
“The arts and culture,” historian, writer, and author Dr Chithra Madhavan, says, “help in holistic learning, especially for students when they are young and will serve them well later in life too. Chennai can seriously develop its cultural status by making school students aware of its ancient history and the history of the performing arts; if we do this, we will be raising a generation of sensitive citizens.”
In contemplating the city’s trajectory, the question arises: What else does Chennai require to further enrich its cultural landscape?
“It needs more performance spaces,” says Lakshmi Ravichander, partner of Event Art that has been curating artistic experiences for over 20 years now.
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“Chennai’s strength is its audience, but the lack of performance spaces that cater to audiences of all sizes is a concern. From our end, we have constantly been trying to move concerts out of traditional venues and provide a different experience both for the performers and audiences,” says Lakshmi, underlining the importance of such spaces to nurture the plethora of artistic endeavours that continue to emerge in the city.
We return to TM Krishna’s visual of the “intersections” and the need to create, nurture, and replicate them in the context of the arts, for the closing lines of this story.
“Think of a traffic intersection; there are bikes, cars, people, cycles… you don’t know anyone there. Festivals ought to be like intersections where what happens there is something you can’t choreograph, but the intersection itself allows for a coming together. People need to witness these artistic experiences and in doing so, they need to be able to share, laugh, cry, be moved, have conversations that are larger, deeper and long-lasting.”
Amen to that!
The writer is an independent journalist and the founder of Aalaap.
(‘Madras 384’ is a curated compilation of articles that joyfully celebrate the captivating journey of Chennai, also known as Madras, while inspiring meaningful discussions.)
