Chennai Sangamam

As a street festival, it has an infectious kind of vibrancy. Immersing yourself in the crowd and fighting to get to the front of the queue to haul off a plate of Dindigul Venu\’s biriyani and holding it balanced above the head while finding a place to dig into it is humbling. Having forgotten what queues were like, it’s not fun to be caught up in one again. But for the kind of acts and the food that was on display, it was worth enduring. The karagattam competes with the other folk arts. Everywhere you turn, there are bodies swaying, drums throbbing and faces shining with sweat. In the middle of all this is the street food, made by the five star restaurants of the city and sold at very reasonable rates.

Then, we came across a troop of Bhangra dancers. Tall, fair and swaying to a completely different beat. The local crowd gathered and enthusiastically joined in. At 10 pm in the night, it seemed like Baisakh again. Where yellow fields of mustard painted the whole landscape. Watching performances where the performers are distant and elevated on a stage is completely different from having them in touching distance. it gives the art a kind of intimacy that rivals anything you can watch.

If this grows the way it is growing right now, Chennai Sangamam could transform Chennai’s already illustrious cultural landscape into a world-beating event.