Tamizh to take centrestage at LangFest 2021

CHENNAI:  It’s been DakshinaChitra’s long-standing motto to promote the traditional arts, architecture and language. In line with that, we wanted to draw a younger crowd to create awareness, promote such traditional forms and start dialogues around them. While soundboarding ideas for such an event, we decided to tap on something close to the hearts of all Chennaiites  the Tamizh language and made it the binding theme,” says Ajay R, assistant curator at DakshinaChitra Museum, talking about the first edition of LangFest 2021.

The two-day festival is an attempt to celebrate the language and culture through theatre, poetry, music, dance, story-telling, standup comedy, puppetry, panel discussions and talks, Tamizh calligraphy and graffiti workshops, among others. “We wanted to make the museum into a cultural space by lacing it with the glory of the language, its different branches and nuances. We cherrypicked the artistes for this event and are quite excited to feature them all on our platform,” he says.

As a lead-up to the festival, several digital pre-events and competitions have been conducted. “The response has been amazing for the virtual events and we are looking forward to physically welcoming the public and the artistes on February 20 and 21,” he says. The morning session will feature panel discussions and talks by S Raghuraman, Kombai Arun and Pralayan on Tamizh script, culture and language; Tenma, Bava Chelladurai, and Samas on Tamizh identity. Gautam Vasudev Menon will be sharing his insights on Tamizh movies, and Madhan Karky will be taking the participants through Tamizh and technology.

The evening line-up will include a diverse range of acts from music performances by Black Boys, Siennor Trio and Othasevuru, theatre performances including Song of Lawino by Kalairani, Vellai Mozhi directed by A Mangai and performed by transgender activist and writer A Revathi to a traditional therukoothu performance by Ramdoss and troupe.

Poetry recital by Ishvar Krishnan, live graffiti sessions by Dibs132, Devarattam performance by Kannan master and troupe, and a photo exhibition on Tamizhi: Early form of Tamil script by KT Gandhirajan, and Kithan Mugangal by Sarathi Tham odaran will also be part of the event. “This will be a recurring annual event. Next year, we will perhaps feature another south Indian language as the theme and curate events around it. This year, Tamizh will take centre stage,” shares Ajay.

Catch the fest
The event will be held on February 20 and February 21 at DakshinaChitra Heritage Museum, Muthukadu. For details,  visit: www.dakshinachitra.net/ dakshinachitralangfest