Coimbatore’s first Margazhiyil Makkalisai concert featuring The Casteless Collective is here
The Hindu
Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Cultural Centre launches Margazhiyil Makkalisai in the city, uniting folk art, rap and gaana on one stage
It all begins with parai. Coimbatore’s first Margazhiyil Makkalisai concert is set to kickstart with a thunderous jikkattam performance by Mahendran and team from Pollachi. The folk art form will feature percussion instruments such as thudumbu and satti parai.
The event, conceptualised by film director and producer Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Cultural Centre, seeks to introduce people to the music of our roots. Here, the stage is much more than just a performance platform. It is a space for democratisation of music, where artistes from several backgrounds and genres are given a voice. From gaana and rap, to oppari and rock, this concert promises a smorgasbord of genres.
Coimbatore’s maiden event will see the coming together of musicians from the Kongu belt. There is kadavu mathattam, featuring eight types of parai. “Their rhythms reflect the lives of the people who play them; parai from the region is referred to by various other names depending on the material used to make the instrument. Although this percussion instrument is different from region to region, the beats that run through it have a common thread of humanity,” says ‘Pesu’ JK Jayakumar, a parai scholar and performer, who is the artistes’ coordinator at Neelam Cultural Centre.