For 45 days, the city of temples comes alive with the the sound of music and dance as hundreds of artists from across the world throng Chennai. Kumar Chellappan tells you more
With more than six hundred musicians reciting together “endaro mahanubhavulu …andariki vandanamulu..”(my respect to all those great men in this world, those men will feel the moonlike beautiful form of God) the famous kriti composed by saint Thyagaraja, one of the trinity of Carnatic music at the famous Thygaraja Swami Temple on the banks of River Cauveri last Wednesday, the festival season of Tamil Nadu has given way to the dreary, humid and hot summer days ahead.
The Margazhi Music and Dance Festival which commenced in the first week of December bade farewell to the city as musicians and danseuses flocked into Chennai from all the continents boarded the return flights with the promise to come back again in December 2020.
For almost 45 days, it was non-stop dance and music performances and that too classical which elevated the aficionados to hitherto unheard and unseen feelings — nearly 4,000 artists and 500 performances! Chennaites couldn’t have asked for more!
Whether it is the US-born danseuse Shreya Iyer, daughter and disciple of Suganda Sreenath or Padma Subramaniam, the eternal queen of Bharatantyam who has been giving scintillating performances even at age76, the stages in Chennai’s various sabhas (Tamil/Sanskrit for the perfect auditoriums where concerts are held) come alive for 45 days as audience are taken for a flight to fantasy.
For Shreya, a globe trotter, an hour of her daily life is devoted to composing and preparing the numbers for the next Margazhi Festival. Whether it is in Norway, or in Melbourne, this disciple of Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan is full of anxiety about Chennai festival.
“It’s the ultimate stage and the final jury,” Shreya tells you whose Nrityopaharam was the concluding programme of 2020 season. “Sakhiye, in Ragam Anand Bhairavi, captures a conversation between the heroin and her friend. The lovelorn nayika (heroin) pleads with her sakhi (friend) not to be indifferent to her suffering and help her by bringing her Lord Rajagopalan (Sree Krishna),” Vijayashree Ramesh, a Bharatanatyam connoisseur who has an eye for picking the best, explains.
Chennai becomes the capital of music and dance during this period as hundreds of artists, local as well as from around the global make a beeline to this city to enthral and entertain the connoisseurs. The musicians may recite the same old numbers and the danseuses the ageold kritis dating back to time immemorial.
“That’s the beauty of Carnatic music as well as the Indian classical dances, especially the Bharatanatyam which has distinct and different styles like the Pandhanaallur and Thanjavur. They are visual treats and if the repertoire are any yardstick, we have not reached the half way mark of the kritis which are there in the treaasurehouse,” said Dakshayani, choreographer and disciple of Padma Subramanian.
There are no repetition or ennui resulting out of hearing the same composition. When Nithyasree Mahadevan, sings Sree Ganapathy Ni Sevimparare, the audience felt they were hearing it for the first time. For Mahadevan, who literally lives out in airport lounges as part of her musical tour around the world, what matters most are the compositions which she has to present during the festival.
There are a lot of reasons why there is so much love for this festival and why people throng to it?
“If you are in Chennai and not attended the festival, it is like a man living in Varanasi and neve rhaving taken a dip in the Ganga,” N Kalyanasundaram, veteran scribe and a regular at the sabhas dotting the city landscape, says.
There can be no Chennai without Margazhi. Though attempts have been made by self-styled progressive elements to counter Margazhi Festival with the other similar festivals, all attempts remained a non-starter.