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| Seaside Kutcheris By KutcheriBuzz Staff / Colombo |   | |||
 The All Sri Lanka Kamban Kazhagam based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, is hosting a eight-day Carnatic music festival here.
Some of the best Madras-based vocalists will perform at the hall at Sri Ramakrishna Mission which is on the sea side of the busy Galle Road. The hall is venue to all kinds of programmes - religious, literary and cultural - and its lodging is preferred by Indians who seek out spartan and quiet places in the heart of Colombo. But if the organisers are to be believed then the space at this hall will not be enough to accommodate all the rasikas who have the best opportunity to listen to Bombay Jayashri or O. S. Thiagarajan. "This is the biggest isai vizha in Sri Lanka and every rasika looks forward to it," says Jayaraj, who founded the Kazhagam when he was a teenager living in Jaffna, in the north of the island. What started as a one concert vizha has now grown into a popular festival organised by a small band of core members of the Kazhagam and supported with donations by its well wishers.
"Our budget is about four lakh Sri Lankan rupees (about Rs.200,000 INR) and we are supported by rasikas who appreciate the spirit behind the vizha," says S. A. Balendran, the treasurer at the kazhagam's office in Welawatte. The tight budget can only pay for flying in the best Carnatic music vocalists from Madras and they have to make do with a permanent set of accompanists (also from Madras!) who are in attendance on all the eight days of the vizha.
The fest also provides slots for local artistes to perform, though at 5pm when the peak hour traffic on Galle Road begins to pile up. Earlier, a Navarathri dance festival featured local dance groups of Leelambikai Selvaraja, Bhavani Guhapriyan, Nirmala Cheran, Sivanandhi Haridarshan, Sivakumari Gnanendran and Vasuki Jagadeeswaran. For rasikas, this Deepavali will be special - listening to Bombay Jayashri that evening. If you are from Sri Lanka and want to share your experiences in music and dance on the island, feel free to write to us at this web site. E-mail - editor@kutcheribuzz.com | ||||
But in a time of peace, still tenous, the festival, free to all, draws a predominantly Tamil audience to the hall on the seaside.