Nobody knew that Mani, Venkadesh and Charles, prisoners in Chennai’s Puzhal prison till last year, were musicians. . At the second edition of Madurai Art Fest (MAF) over the weekend, they scripted a memorable identity transformation.
Part of the prison theatre movement in Puzhal where they honed their creative skills, the trio performed outside their confined lives in a different city for the first time. They were released last year and were trying to organise a concert when an invitation to MAF came their way.
Art for Unity : Spectators at the Madurai Art Fest-2019 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In front of a large audience, Venkadesh played the keyboard, Charles matched the beats on his dholak and Mani lent his voice to the songs they jointly wrote and composed. Sirai Gaana was about their life in prison.
It was two days of celebration of folk music and traditions inside the Corporation’s Eco Park, that was aesthetically lit with paper lanterns and bulbs inside cane baskets. The city folk extended their support to art for unity and change. It also united artists from across different art forms in a way not seen before in the city.
Art for Unity : Performers at the Madurai Art Fest-2019 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In January 2018 Prabahar V, a professor in The American College, and passionate about protecting folk arts, conceived the Madurai Art Fest. In just about a year, he converted it into a bigger and dedicated event. This year’s public response and support from multiple alternate groups has convinced him of the creative revolutionary ethos among people.
Art for Unity : Performers at the Madurai Art Fest-2019 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
As Director of the Kaleidoscope Centre for Alternate Education, Art & Culture, Prabahar’s success has been in getting a good number of unfamiliar artists and their creations to one place. His aim, he says, is to engage the youth in art development. “All arts are equal, there should be no barriers segmenting them into different venues, from temples to sabhas,” he says. “When we integrate, critical art always raises consciousness and this festival provided an atmosphere for meaningful conversations.”
Art for Unity : Performers at the Madurai Art Fest-2019 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Madurai Seed, an NGO that works with less privileged children, brought together a group of street children and students of TVS Matriculation Higher Secondary School for powerful inclusive plays. The former enacted the need for communal harmony in a play titled Manudam Vellum (humanity wins) while the school students put up a fantasy story of animals travelling to the moon, Nilavukku pokirom.
Purity of sound boomed from thappattam at the start of the festival that also saw several local artistes and groups performing the skilled sport mallar kambam,silambattam, the high-energy karagattam and oyilattam-kavadi.
Art for Unity : Actors from Perch, Chennai, staging Kira Kozhambu at the Madurai Art Fest-2019 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
This year, social entrepreneurs and art enthusiasts found space at the venue. Several local artists and photographers mounted their exhibits and installations. NGOs such as the Yellow Bag, You Can, Maram Madurai, Padikattugal Aram, Cuckoo, Vasagasaalai, Kalakala Vaguparai, Green Walk put up stalls for healthy food, eco-friendly fabric, pottery, alternatives to plastics, and children’s and Tamil books.
Art for Unity : Performers at the Madurai Art Fest-2019 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The festival had Madurai’s popular singers who sang about unity and love beyond boundaries. Tamil rock singer of the 1970s, Rajasekaran Jesudasan, engaged the audience with seven songs. Joined by lead guitarist Castro Felix from The Music Man school, their song ‘Kaathiruppom’ touched a chord. “I wrote this song for the festival. It talks about how we wait for the day to convey our love for each other,” he says. His other peppy song ‘Dhavani’ was about wishful thinking of returning to good old traditions and times. Ten-year-old Tanya who played the drums wearing pattu pavadai was an instant favourite.
Art for Unity : Performers at the Madurai Art Fest-2019 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Sanil Joseph doled out 10 unplugged versions of popular cine songs from films Panchavarna Kili, Achcham Enbathu Madamaiyeda, Bharathi to much applause. “Singing songs about Tamil pride, love and unity in the open air for the general public was a different experience,” he says.
Contemporary dance matched with graceful kathak and Assamese folk dance and curtains came down with the play KiRa Kozhambu staged by Perch, Chennai. Three actors, Anand Sami, Ravindra Vijay and Maya S Krishnan, using a wooden bench as the only prop, held both children and adults in rapt attention for an hour with a mash-up of stories based on the folk tales of the legendary Ki Rajanarayanan.
Art for Unity : Performers at the Madurai Art Fest-2019 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Singing and dancing in the street theatre format, it was an eclectic blend of art and entertainment. After quick self-introductions, the performers asked the audience about various story beginnings and morphed into several characters. From the love story of the sky and the earth to the birth of sun and moon, how birds got their wings to a self-important Garuda, the team created a cocktail of fantasy, mythology and Nature and had the audience in splits.
“To get such a spontaneous and attentive crowd in open air for a live performance is not easy,” says Maya, Madurai girl, now a part of Kollywood.