I admit I enjoy a pizza anytime over idly or dosas. With increasing globalisation, our cultural identities are blurring boundaries. Our society today is heavily influenced by the west. SPICMACAY is a voluntary organization that promotes and showcases classical arts amidst the youth. Â The SPICMACAY convention hosted at IIT Madras was a unique experience. Â Magnanimous in scale, the convention was attended by more than 3000 participants from all over the globe. The week long program was structured as smaller concentrated workshops in the morning, where students could interact with professionals at an intimate scale and common concerts in the afternoons that gave us a taste of the different disciplines. Lecture demonstrations were woven in-between these. They offered a glimpse of theory and explanations about the art forms from the artists themselves. Â The disciplines ranged from north to south and comprised a variety of crafts, arts, dances and music. The organisers did not distinguish between high class arts and common arts. Both bharatanatiyam and palm leaves weaving from Chettinad were given equal importance.
Amidst the array of choices it was difficult to decide on one option from the morning workshop. Â I chose to be a part of the therukuthu workshop. I first experienced a therukuttu performance during the Thirunyanmiur temple festival. Mesmerized by this experience, I wanted to learn more about this folk art form.
Therukuttu is a village folk art, from Tamil Nadu, traditionally performed outside temples, in the night, during festivals. It is a form of dance drama that mainly depicts the two epics Ramayana and Mahabharatam. The narratives last the entire night and is characterised by long soliloquies, songs and footsteps called adavugal. Characters are distinguished by their costumes. The performances’ are a mixture of rehearsed narrations and spontaneous interaction with the audience.
The workshop was conducted by members from the Purisai Duraisamy Therukoothu Mandram, an art guild led by P.K.Sambandam Thambiran. They are a legendary performance troupe that continues to perform in villages around the state even today. They have further diversified by reinterpreting contemporary plays into the therukuttu format for city audiences.
The workshop was attended by an eccentric mix of students- ranging from a girl from Paris studying dance, three twelfth standard students from Gujarat to two of us from college. Everything our instructor was says was simultaneously translated into Hindi and English, on the sides for everybody to understand.
Through the workshop we learn to sing and perform to an introductory song and learnt about various aspects of the artists such as-the teaching and learning process, role of women in the performances, struggles and challenges faced by them etc. my favourite experience was when we got to sit in on the costume and makeup session before their performance. We saw them transform into their characters and ready themselves by discoursing dialogue cues and entry. The play itself was very expressive. It became apparent why it was more suited for a street performance then on stage. The use of mics limited their movement. The artists don’t depend on back drops and props. They themselves are the high light. When performing on a street the crowd is more intimate an keeps moving and changing throughout the night since this is a story known to all. The same ambience and power couldn’t be replicated on stage.
On the whole I had an amazing experience. I discovered the potential of story telling as a medium of communication. I admire the discipline it takes to dance, sing, recite dialogues and interact with audience while wearing a ten kg wooden costume continuously the entire night!
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