Tag: things to do in Chennai

My hopes for 2024: What Chennai personalities look forward to in the New Year

Post By Entertainment , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Asal Kolaar, Rapper and musician

With every year, I strive to be better. This was a year that I could see some growth in myself. My visibility increased twofold. My recent songs in the latter half of the year, ‘Naa Ready’ from Leo and ‘Kotha Raja’ from King of Kotha wrapped up the year on a high. 

After my stint on Big Boss 2022, I had received a lot of brickbats on social media. It was difficult to handle but has also made me tougher. I started immersing myself in my work. It used to hurt me initially, but now I know how to handle it. This was my biggest takeaway from 2023. 

I always try to experiment with the lyrics or flow of my music and aspire to evolve constantly with my sound. I believe that this will reflect on some of the independent tracks that are slated for next year. Tamil independent music does not have an identity like say reggaeton, drill music or Afro beat. A lot of the independent music is now mixed with commercial cinema music. I want to try and bring a specific, identifiable sound to Tamil independent music. I hope to see a new wave in 2024 with many young independent artistes coming up. This music should be recognised globally. 

I do not usually make New Year resolutions but consistency is something that I will concentrate on in 2024. It will also be the year I produce my own videos and music and not associate with a label. Expectations for 2024? (Laughs) Nothing much, a lot of money should come my way, that is all.  

(As told to Gowri S)

Asal Kolaar
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement

Ashok Selvan, Actor

It has been a phenomenal year.. a year which I will not forget. I got married to the love of my life and Por Thozhil (2023) gave me the hope to pursue my dreams relentlessly. After its release, a producer came up to me and asked how I chose to play this character (DSP K Prakash) as he is not a typical hero in the film. It was a bet which paid off. This was my first ₹50 crore film and it has given me the confidence to play the characters I like. There is no need to play it safe.

There was a persistent duality with respect to fame earlier. I never sought it when I was young. A part of me wondered if I should silently leave everything (in cinema) while another part wanted me to rule the world. A saint however told me that my soul must experience fame even though I never asked him the question. This has given me some clarity too. Next year, I want to be more adventurous with my film choices.

Aside from my career, Keerthi (Pandian) and I are living under the same roof now. We are both trying to fit into one world and understand each others’ personal space. I just had my film’s release (Saba Nayagan) last week and found myself washing vessels. (Laughs) I am enjoying this phase too. Our schedules are haywire and we are both running around. To find time, we have started the practice of keeping our cell phones out of the bedroom. We have an emergency number which is only known to our parents. This has also helped.

I will be in Yercaud during New Year’s. I am shooting there and she (Keerthi) will be joining me.

(As told to Sanjana Ganesh)

Ashok Selvan

Ashok Selvan
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement

Aryamba Sriram, Dancer

Personally, 2023 was a huge milestone year for me since I got engaged to be married. Artistically, the year has been enriching. Working with my teachers and the Spanda Dance Company (in Chennai) has been a huge eye opener because I have begun to find my voice, what kind of an artiste I want to be, and what it is that gives me solace in taking up this art. This year’s takeaway would be finding joy in the discipline of practice and preparation for performances.

The December seasonthis year seems to be extremely rewarding, for all the work we have been doing over the past year. The journey towards these programmes and performances during the season is what is interesting. The year 2023 has been all about preparing, and this has taken the focus.

A lot of inspiration has kicked in this year, that I am hoping to take into 2024. I just got back from the Serendipity Arts Festival (in Goa), and the kind of work I saw people putting in has been extremely inspiring. I am looking forward to creating work that means something to me, that is honest and reflects my voice. I am keen to see what unfolds for me in 2024.

(As told to S Poorvaja)

Aryamba Sriram

Aryamba Sriram

Ezhilan Naganathan, MLA, Thousand Lights Assembly Constituency

Every year, there are new challenges and newer dimensions opening up. It is all about our attitude towards these challenges. I hope that 2024 is disaster-free and that the community at large remains unaffected.The efforts taken for flood mitigation this year were a challenge and a learning experience. Being a coastal city, Chennai bears the brunt of climate change. This new year, people should address climate change, at the policy level as well as at the community level throughorientation and awareness. We should have an environmental, eco-friendly approach in every aspect of life, and need to leave behind a reasonable place to live for our future generations. I believe we shouldtake this message forward.

When the 2021 floods occured, Thousand Lights, a low-lying area, was affected and we had water inundation in 46 places. Apart from the flood mitigation work, we had to set up a coordination team between various departments in the constituency. This year, through a planned, synchronised approach, we were able to restore the area during the floods. When you have a structural approach one can find a way forward in addressing these kinds of disasters. The lessons learnt in 2023, will definitely be carried over to 2024. I am part of the State Planning Commission as well, and we are looking at synchronised efforts in disaster management.

MLA Ezhilan Naganathan surveys his assembly constituency during cyclone Michaung

MLA Ezhilan Naganathan surveys his assembly constituency during cyclone Michaung

 The lessons learnt in 2023, will definitely be carried over to 2024. I am a part of the State Planning Commission as well, and we are looking at synchronised efforts in disaster management.

(As told to S Poorvaja)

R Vaishali, Chess Grandmaster

My 2023 can be divided into two halves; one abysmal and the other euphoric. Though I had lots of opportunities in tournaments in the first few months of the year, things were not going my way.

In the second half of the year, the tide turned. I started faring well in a few tournaments. This December has been a special month for me. It started off with me getting the GM (Grandmaster Title), something that I have dreamt of since I was a child. Subsequently, I was also selected for the Arjuna Award, something that gave me great joy.

All this is happening while my brother, Praggnanandhaa, is scaling newer heights in chess. Having witnessed his hardwork from close quarters, I am very proud of him. However, the spotlight has been entirely on him in the last few years and I am afraid that I did not handle that well. I have overcome that feeling now, and am now in a much better frame of mind. I keep telling myself that he (Praggnananda) is a chess prodigy and that our paths with respect to the sport are different.

R Vaishali

R Vaishali
| Photo Credit:
DEBASISH BHADURI

I hope 2024 turns out well for me. The start indeed looks good. In January, even as I receive my Arjuna Award, my chess coach, RB Ramesh, will bag the prestigious Dronacharya Award, something that he richly deserves. With lots of exciting tournaments to look forward to, I expect a fully-packed year of playing chess. When I am not engaged with the game, I look forward to playing some friendly games of table tennis and shuttle with my brother and brushing up my human resources lessons for my masters degree.

(As told to Srinivasa Ramanujam)

Source link

#hopes #Chennai #personalities #Year

Tamil Nadu’s Kovilpatti, home to India’s traditional calendar art revolution

Post By Entertainment , , , , , , , , , ,

Vyjayanthimala clad in an incandescent green saree teases a glance as a fish bowl and its silvery-gold inhabitants in the background stand witness. This canvas is signed: M Ramalingam.  An archetype of 1980s Tamil cinema and its dramatic allure, this frame frozen in paint, speaks volumes: of a glorious time of hand-drawn skills that later morphed into the thriving industry of calendar art in South India. Ramalingam was one of its most prolific stars.   

Today, in the bylanes of the dusty, metro work-laden Arcot Road in Chennai is Chithiraalayam, an unassuming gallery brimming with familiar canvases and prints. By familiar, I don’t mean in the style of Razas and Husains. Rather, it is the kind of familiarity you associate with a dear object at home that you have known for decades. In the gallery are many ‘saami padams’ (as they were known in the 1940s) by some of the stalwarts and pioneers of the calendar art industry, all hailing from the school of C Kondiah Raju. Think Muruga with a smile on his face against a glittery backdrop, and other Hindu gods and goddesses, apart from scenes from popular Indian mythology like that of the churning of the ocean. 

Chithiraalayam is a study on this school of artists that never got its due and of an industry that faded around the end of the 20th Century. A part of the collection is on display today at DakshinaChitra, as an ode to its forgotten masters. 

Devi art studio (1946)
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement

Painted history 

Calendar art found space in most Indian households in the early 20th Century, as they were often distributed for free by retail stores selling textile, jewellery and sweets ordering calendars to give to customers. But little was known about the hands that drew them. “It is an industry that never got registered in art history,” says KR Jayakumar, the youngest son of Ramalingam whose vision for this commercial art gallery is awareness more than revenue: for now, all the works here are only for display and documentation. 

As Raja Ravi Varma, one of the pioneers of popular art in the country, earned steady acclaim for bringing European academic art styles onto Indian themes, and portraying characters from The Mahabharata and the The Ramayana, a quieter revolution was underway in the sidelines, impinged on portraying divinity.  

The legacy goes back to the 1940s when popular art in Kovilpatti got a name under C Kondiah Raju who started out by painting backdrops for travelling theatre companies. Shortly after, he set up photo studios (Sri Ambal Arts in 1944 and Devi Art Studio in 1946) that would see a rush for portraits, which were often drawn in or finished up by the fine hand skill of his students: TS Subbiah, S Meenakshisundaram, TS Arunachalam, M Ramalingam, G Shenbagaraman, M Sreenivasen and TS Rajagopal Raju.

Portrait of artist Vyjayanthimala by M Ramalingam

Portrait of artist Vyjayanthimala by M Ramalingam
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement

Then came Muruga purnas (different manifestation of lord Muruga) and Hindu mythological scenes, a lot of them dominated by goddesses. “There has always been a tension and thus an attraction to the female as a deity and as a beauty,” says Stephen Inglis, a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. “As an anthropologist studying potter communities in Madurai/Ramnad, I saw popular imagery everywhere: in temples, schools, shops, and people’s homes. I wanted to know more,” says Stephen, who is also the curator of the show at DakshinaChitra. 

It was the ubiquity of distribution and the use and juxtaposition of imagery that invited Stephen to look at calendar art specifically. The advent of printing presses in Sivakasi (known for its dry climate which made it an ideal location for printing apart from matchstick production) meant an increase in both production and demand. 

An advertisement featuring actor Padmini

An advertisement featuring actor Padmini
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement

“Every year, around the month of aadi, almost 120 printers would pick up bound albums with sample artworks to show their clients,” says Somasundaram, artist and oldest son of Ramalingam as he flips through a colourful collection of sample artworks from 1997. It holds some Christian iconography, paintings of mosques apart from landscapes and pictures of actresses: from Madhuri Dixit to Urvasi. 

Over the years, influences of photography, superimposition, cinema and even the advent of spray cans can be seen on these canvases. So much so that a Muruga with a pink-and-golden, patterned backdrop had, believe it or not, a crystal bowl for inspiration. The cut-glass pattern behind the form of Muruga became very popular in the late 1980s, says Somasundaram. Photographs of ornate temple gopurams were another popular trope for backdrops. 

A scene depicting Meenakshi Kalyanam

A scene depicting Meenakshi Kalyanam
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement

Ramalingam created over 1,400 pieces in his time, and over 1 lakh prints of each have been circulated over the years. “Our father passed away in 1993, but his prints were still in circulation until 2003,” says Jayakumar. TS Subbiah followed closely. “Every artist had their own set of challenges,” says Marieswaran, artist and son of TS Subbiah as he looks at a black and white portrait of the artist reclining on a crescent moon, perhaps a prop from a drama set: he was inspired by the grandiose of theatre.  

“And, with religious subjects, there is an unspoken guarantee of every piece being a reverent keepsake. Till today, some household prayer rooms are home to these calendars,” says Marieswaran. 

Artist TS Subbiah who was inspired by the grandiose of theatre

Artist TS Subbiah who was inspired by the grandiose of theatre
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement

The road ahead

The earliest original work in Chithiraalayam is dated to 1955. It took Jayakumar almost eight years to find and source at least some of his father’s original works. ”I approached the presses that my father was regularly in touch with. The main contributors were Coronation, Orient and Das printers who had some of the originals intact,” says Jayakumar. While prints were easier to collect, the originals, of which almost 60 are on display, were hard to spot.

The industry began to fade out at the end of the 20th Century. Says Stephen, “The presses that typically acquired the original paintings had a volume that, with some retouching, could meet their needs. The digital ease with which paintings and photographs could be supplied made the painting phase obsolete. Calendars were replaced by cell phones.” 

An advertisement for Comorin Matches

An advertisement for Comorin Matches
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement

Today, a couple of tall wooden easels stand guard to a low plank on which is an unfinished canvas: the chair is empty, yet carries the weight of an industry that revolutionised commercial art. This was Ramalingam’s workspace: the gallery hosts a replica of the workspace as it was in the early 20th Century. Jayakumar reminisces, “There would always be a small bowl of off white or ivory paint near the canvas, on the desk. Everyday after school, I would watch his speed in placing the paints on the first coat.”

Now, efforts are on to celebrate the printed picture as a key artform of the 20th Century, says Inglis. “It is by learning about the artists and their work, and celebrating their contribution that any revival is possible.” 

Source link

#Tamil #Nadus #Kovilpatti #home #Indias #traditional #calendar #art #revolution

Tamil theatre’s new voice: Chennai audiences cheer for fresh ideas and new faces

Post By Entertainment , , , , , , , ,

Centrestage, under the spotlight, sits a corpse. 

It is not shrouded in white cloth, though. Instead, there are rings and gold chains, a suave pair of sunglasses and an occasionally toothy grin. Unusual? Yes. Funny? The Saturday afternoon audience certainly thought so, given that they roared with laughter for the entire 10 minutes of Sethum Jaichidichu Meesai, staged at the recently concluded Short + Sweet South India 2022. 

The 10-minute play traces an exasperated son’s relationship with his self-centered father through a non-linear monologue in Tamil, hours after the father’s passing. It went on to win Best Production, Best Script and Best Actor (Male) awards at the festival. Similarly, Jayachandran of Tamil group Kael Theatre won Best Director, for the hard-hitting, impeccably timed, Iruvar, an examination of the P Jayaraj-Bennix custodial death case.   

A still from Sethum Jaichidichu Meesai at the recently concluded Short + Sweet Theatre Festival 2022
| Photo Credit:
Mohan Das Vadakara

Case in point: contemporary Tamil theatre in Chennai is having its moment in the sun.  

It is undergoing a makeover in the hands of young theatre groups and individuals, all of whom are experimenting with form, themes, dialect and dramaturgy, while keeping the sentiment of the language at its core. By moving away from traditional and folk formats to embrace contemporary themes, it is also reaching out to a younger, urban audience. 

Vijay Babu and his 69-year-old father Hari Babu, a former National-level boxing champion, who play the son and father in Sethum Jeichidichu… respectively, have been gathering fans ever since their first run. Vijay, who also wrote the script with first-time director Thiravia Sankar, has not performed much outside of the Short + Sweet festival over the years. He calls himself a “run-of-the-mill guy” who found himself through theatre in 2015. His father, Hari, on the other hand has no stage experience whatsoever.

They are among the burgeoning crop of promising directors, writers and actors who are rewriting how the audience perceives the medium. “With avenues like Short + Sweet, there are greater opportunities for people like us to perform. There is space to evolve. I am still in the learning stage,” says Vijay.   

A still from Iruvar

A still from Iruvar
| Photo Credit:
Mohan Das Vadakara

Role models stand tall

“The first time we saw naveena natakam was by Na Muthuswamy sir. He brought in the novel idea that Tamil theatre can be done in a contemporary way,” says B Charles, light designer and member of Chennai Art Theatre who is also one of the founders of the black box, Medai – The Stage, in Alwarpet. It was matched by veterans like Prasanna Ramasamy and A Mangai who looked at radical, and important themes within the milieu of regional theatre. He adds, “Muruga Bhoopathy and groups like Perch and Koothu Pattarai took it to an international level.” The current crop, or atleast most of the directors and writers who experiment, come from similar schools that boast years of experience on stage. 

Vetri of Theatre Akku which formed in 2017 comes from Koumarane Valavane’s Puducherry-based Indianostrum Theatre. “When I came to Chennai from a strict schedule at Indianostrum, I felt empty. I started observing other groups’ rehearsals: both established and amateur,” he says. Their first play, Adavu, derives from a therukoothu artist’s life, an inspiration that struck Vetri while observing the work of Purisai Therukoothu helmed by Kannappa Thambiran in Purisai. It went on to play 26 shows.

For the ages

Traditional tamil theatre has deep roots in the city. The late 19th and early 20th Century was the period of great growth — from folk arts groups becoming organised troupes; to the rise of sabha plays that predominantly ran religious and epic plays based on The Mahabharatha and The Ramayana, and of doyens like Sankaradas Swamigal, Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar and more recently S Murugabhoopathy, Na Muthuswamy.

As a contemporary group, Akku does not follow the traditional tenets of devising a performance. What starts as a discussion among actors, are improvised, to form a loose structure. Komaligal ( a four-play anthology in Tamil that looks at sexual oppression and abuse of women by drawing inferences for real incidents) , which has been touring since 2020, is testament to this process. 

“Thanks to the digital age, a certain sense of expectation is now applied to theatre as well. We have to match these expectations. Only then can we get a regular audience,” says Vetri.

Being contemporary is not only restricted to the content. The way in which it is executed matters. Collaborations with other existing groups would also lead to the creation of new formats, says Vetri. “Art is meant to be democratic. If theatre can reach the people, nothing like it. This would even mean putting up private shows for a group of 50 or 75 people in a community hall,” says Vetri. Komaligal has travelled to schools, public spaces, orphanages, detention centres and other unconventional stages, to reach audiences who don’t have access to theatre.     

Accessible spaces

While curating, for every six plays at Medai, Charles makes sure that at least two to three plays are in Tamil. “The short plays usually come from local writers, and definitely there is a greater connection with the audience as well,” says Charles. This year, the sheer number of new Tamil plays hosted in the space was more. “We hosted around 12 Tamil plays in Medai, all of which were helmed by young writers and directors,” he adds.  

The fact that mainstream stages in the city are not accessible is partly responsible for the birth of Idam, a new performance/workshop space by Theatre Akku, admits Vetri. From a commercial point of view, renting a mainstream stage, like say, Egmore Museum Theatre is unthinkable for an up and coming group, says Vetri. “Even when we sell tickets, we try to keep it economical and accessible. So, we might not meet the profit margin all the time.”

Idam, which is yet to formally launch, is a small, theatrical space. With a bookshelf, murals and seats that fold into the walls, the space is meant for any form of workshops, performances and even rehearsals.    

A still from the play Dhik Dhik

A still from the play Dhik Dhik
| Photo Credit:
R. Pradeep

New audiences are looking for renewed visual experiences, a deviation from the sabha culture that relied heavily on the written word. In the digital age, the production quality of a play invariably comes under scrutiny: from acting, sets, lights to costumes, everything is under the scanner. “Even if you don’t have an exceptional set, something new should be on offer,” says Vetri, adding that it’s important to attract new audiences. 

“Apart from the already existing theatre community in the city, audiences are now looking for good Tamil contemporary plays. In 100 people, at least 80 people come for the content and the language,” says Charles. The idea is to break into the niche, and grow the community, rather than looking at it as a sub community.  “Even within Tamil theatre, there seems to be a gap between traditional or folk forms and contemporary. If these two worlds can combine and bring out a new style, it will be very interesting to see,” says Vijay.

Source link

#Tamil #theatres #voice #Chennai #audiences #cheer #fresh #ideas #faces