What is so special and unique about this Sunday kacheri in a park?
This kacheri is unique because there are no mikes blaring, nor are there chairs for the listeners to sit and enjoy the keerthanams. If the singers and the instrumentalists sit on the ground, the listeners also have to either stand or sit on the ground or on the cement parapet running around the huge trees.
Above all, only children below the age of 15 are allowed to sing at the kacheri.
T T Srinivasaraghavan, nanaging director, Sundaram Finance, the man behind this unusual concept, says you have to be in Mylapore to experience the “essence of old Madras.”
For anything that is connected with the culture of Chennai that was Madras, be it music, flowers or kolams, you have to be in Mylapore. It is to capture this tradition and culture that Sundaram Finance started a kolam festival ten years ago. Then came the Mylapore music festival seven years ago.
During the Margazhi music festival (held in the Tamil month of Margazhi, in December-January), Sundaram Finance used to reserve the morning slots for children but soon they realised that there was so much talent in Chennai to be tapped and encouraged. “So, we thought why should we restrict ourselves to four days a year and not make it an ongoing affair?” says Srinivasaraghavan.
He further adds, “This kacheri is only for kids below the age of 15 who have not previously sung anywhere else. This is not a celebrity event; the celebrities are the kids themselves. We want to unearth and promote talent. We will never make it a big bang event!”
The decision to have the festival in the park without mikes and speakers is to help the kids sing in the full range of their voice and also not to ruin public peace in a park.
Text: Shobha Warrier | Photographs: Sreeram Selvaraj
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