Ten Years of Creating an 'Open' Performance Space in the City

When it comes to kutcheris, the crowd would be of Kancheepuram sari-clad women and 50-something men comfortably seated mostly on cushion chairs in an AC hall. But for the Sunday Park Kutcheri, the audiences were the local joggers and walkers in shorts and T-shirts. Organised by Sundaram Finance, ‘Kutcheri in the park’ initiative completed a decade, recently. 

As we entered the Nageswara Rao park in Mylapore around 7 am, we were greeted by the chirping of birds and the aroma of kaapi. A group of eight children from Veenavadhini Sangita Sampradaya Trust, dressed in traditional red-brown pattu paavaadais and kurtas on the Chess Square, which was decorated with flowers, performed classical numbers, including Marukelara, Ananda Amruta Karshini and Pranamamyaham. 

In one corner, there were men and women, doing yoga and stretching exercises. On the other side, there was high excitement among the children’s parents, who were clicking the performances with digital cameras, iPads and iPhones.

Every song ended with a round of applause from the 50-odd walkers at the park. The idea behind the monthly open-air Sunday one-hour-mike-less kutcheri was to promote the young musical talent.

We were quite surprised looking at T T Srinivasaraghavan, managing director, Sundaram Finance Limited himself dressed informally. Speaking to us, he said, “I am not here to give any speech. Children are celebrities today. It was a conscious decision of ours that we don’t invite celebrities to the kutcheri. We don’t want to make it a glitzy event.” When asked how he could expand this initiative further, he said that the whole idea was to utilise the public space and make it a community affair.

“In fact, there are a couple of other parks in Chennai where our kutcheri format has been replicated. That gives us immense satisfaction and I am very happy about that. There was absolutely no commercialisation of this format in any form. The only return on investment for us is the joy that the kutcheri spreads. What we do is more than a CSR activity,” he added.

Balasubramaniam (37) said that the kutcheri could help his daughter shed her inhibitions and that she would be present concerts confidently in front of a larger audience in future. “It’s totally fun as there’s no pressure of a ‘formal’ performance. I hope this takes her to the next level,” he said.

(With the visitors, each year, including overseas visitors, participating, the Sunday Park kutcheri is held on the first Sunday of every month between 7 and 8 am. Sundaram Finance conducts auditions to select the artistes).

(The piece was originally written for The New Indian Express)