Cyclone Vardah may have laid low many trees and shrubs inside Nageswara Rao Park in Luz. But it has not dampened the spirits of Sundaram Finance, which maintains it. Next week, the Chess Square of this park will echo to the Carnatic music of many young artistes as they present concerts on four mornings for the annual Mylapore Festival.
Wholly supported by Sundaram Finance, this street cultural fest, on from January 5 to 8 in the new year will host over 30-plus events across the four days, featuring over 200 artistes, including groups from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
( The Fest schedule is posted online at – www.mylaporefestival.com)
This year, much is being offered to children. There are two workshops for them; one set to be hosted under the green umbrella of Nageswara Rao Park and another set inside the campus of Lady Sivaswami Ayyar Girls School. Mylapore where dancers and crafts promoters T. M. Sreedevi and Deepti Ravichandran are to offer snappy sessions on the basics of theatre/dance, the game of ‘pandi’ and some simple crafts.
Two Bharatanatyam gurus present their big dane productions. Saikripa Prasanna from Chromepet presents a production based on the works of poet-writer Subramania Bharati while Mylapore-based Jayanthi Subramaniam presents ‘Aranya Kandam’ ( on Jan. 5 and 7 respectively).
Something different at the Festival is this 70-minute long play in Tanglish – Thamizh and English – called Jujubee, produced by Perch and directed by Rajiv Krishnan. To be staged in the open air in Sannidhi Street square, it will appeal to children and the child in adults.
Timed with the milestone celebration of saint-philosopher Sri Ramanuja ( in his 1000th birth anniversary), is this riveting students’ production, ‘Ramanuja Vaibhavam’, by 45 students of Hindu Senior Sec. School of Triplicane. This Sunday evening show ( 7 p.m.) in the open air could well be a stunning musical few have seen from artistes so young.
A katta-bommalattam show by traditional puppeteers from Salem district, two snappy folk shows by artistes from Karnataka ( shared by Dakshinachitra) and a kattai—koothu, two-hour long show by a troupe from Cheyyar which winds up the Fest, is scheduled.
Six Walks are offered at this Fest. V. Sriram re-explores Sri Kapali Temple and the tank, Chitra Madhavan takes people to thee local temples, to show people how they must look at temples they visit, Padmapriya is on to a long Walk – covering the 7 Sivan Temples of this zone, foodie Sridhar Venkataraman takes people on his two weekend Walks, the less-known food joints of this area while architect Tahaer Zoyab will take guests into streets which hold some great, old houses.
Three streets will come alive to different display and sales – Co-optex is displaying its best collection of handloom saris and new innocations from the corners of Tamil Nadu ( on the street alongside the temple tank), Self Help Group women set up shop, on Kumaraguru Street ( south side of the temple) and a variety of snacks will be on offer on the Food Street.
Yes, the hugely popular contests in dayakattam and in Palankuzhi are being held on the weekend. And the flagship event, Kolam Contests on Jan. 7 and 8 – those who wish to take part and show off their creative skills have to register at the venue on North Mada Street’s south end at 3 p.m. and present their best kolam, to win prizes
ALL THE INFO ON THIS FEST IS AT – www.mylaporefestival.com
