Kanchipuram-based Kattaikkuttu Sangam presents its annual Kalai Thiru Vizha

There will be a variety of performances by Sangam as well as contemporary Tamil theater artists Photo Credit: PV/Kattaikkuttu Sangam

For 33 years now, the huge hall of the Kattaikoottu Sangam in Punjarsantankal village of Kanchipuram has been throbbing with a fervor. Thiruvizha Every March. However, this year, it is the winter months that mark the annual Kalai Thiru Vizha with a variety of performances staged by Sangam as well as contemporary Tamil theater artists. A segment of each of the two formats spans 10 Saturdays until January 4, 2025.

“This is the second year of this particular format,” says Sangam architect Hanne M de Bruin, who is accompanied by her husband P Rajagopal, a director, playwright and third-generation artist of the theater genre, and a few other artisans. , founded the non-profit initiative in 1990. The initiative also ran Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam, a school that taught the art, which closed after the pandemic.

From Erangal Isai Photo Courtesy: PV/Kattaikkuttu Sangam

Thiru Vijaha has so far staged Kattaikoottu performances by Rajagopal and the ensemble, besides theater groups like Perch and Indianostrum, TM Krishna’s rendition, and M Abdul Gani and his troupe of Sufi singers from Nagore. In the coming weeks, there is Mobile Girls Kootam by Samyuktha PC and Draupadi-Dushasasan Tarakam by the three duo artistes; Souladi Shivashakti by Theater Nisha and Daksha Yagyam by Sangam; Won’t You Hear Me by A Bharathi and P Sasikumar; and Shurpanakha: A Discovery, by Parsathi J Nath, among others.

“The main objective of the festival is to bridge the urban-rural divide,” says Hain, “people in Chennai are unaware of Koothu and that it is alive and active; whereas village people here have never seen contemporary Tamil theater because it Only in the city does she say her audience is “so ready to see what’s on offer,” she says, “with kids sitting in the front rows, waiting to see the show.”

Hain says that Thiru Vizha was started to provide employment to artists during the off-season. “It also coincides with the Margazhi season, and we try to create more awareness on Kuthu; “Everyone should have access to it,” she says. The festival will conclude on January 4 with an all-night performance, Mahabharatam, by Kattakkuttu Sangam, which will run from 9 pm to 6 am the next day. “It’s a big production that brings together a cast of 40,” she says.

Although the Gurukulam has been closed, Hain says they are working towards safeguarding the “transmission of the knowledge of Kuthu”. He has written a book to this effect Kattaikkuttu: A Rural Theater Tradition in South India (Bloomsbury), which arrived in the UK last year. He and Rajagopal are also set to present a Lek-Dame at the Sangeet Academy’s academic session on December 19.

Kalai Thiru Vizha continues till January 4 at Kattaikoottu Sangam in Punjarasanthakal village of Kanchipuram. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. For details, call 9944369600, write to info@kattaikkuttu.org, visit kattaikkuttu.org.