The offbeat Margazhi mela
Few Tamil months arrive with an unspoken agenda. Aadi signals feminine divinity, Purattasi leans into devotion and abstinence, and Margazhi unfolds with utmost precision. Dawn musical alarms, packed sabha schedules, tradition-clad audiences, and season tickets. Over the years, Margazhi has grown into a cultural machine, its rhythms familiar and its expectations firmly set. What happens when Margazhi loosens its grip on convention? As the season returns once again, a quieter counter-current is emerging one that questions whether tradition must always follow the same script. It is within this space of gentle defiance that Aalaaps Margazhi programming positions itself. For founder Akhila Krishnamurthy, curation has never been about scale or spectacle. Every year, we try to do something different with our curation, she says, adding that Aalaaps larger exploration has been to see how music shifts when its located in a space outside of the proscenium. The shift, she believes, is not merely spatial but emotional. In an intimate environment, the artiste retunes themselves to connect with an audience, and the audience responds differently when the artiste is sitting so close to them. This insistence on intimacy has shaped Aalaaps collaborations this season, particularly its ongoing engagement with non- sabha spaces. The goal, she says, is to enable interaction without diluting seriousness. This philosophy finds its most visible expression in Carnatic Shot, a seven-day concert series at Beachville Coffee Roasters, starting from December 22. Conceived as a collaboration between Aalaap and the caf, the series is also, as Akhila puts it, a collaboration between artistes and between artistes and audiences. Each day brings together musicians in unexpected pairings, reinforcing what she calls a celebration of collaboration. Running every afternoon, the series invites listeners into a space that feels closer to a practice room than a performance hall. The line-up features a diverse artistes, including Rithvik Raja with his students, Girijashankar Sundaresan, Aditya Prakash, Praveen Sparsh with his students, Vignesh Ishwar, Srinidhi Pennathur, among others reflecting the many ways collaboration can unfold within the Carnatic ecosystem. Midway through the season, Aalaap also turns its attention to slowing the Margazhi rush down. Margazhi Mehfil, a ghazal evening on December 22 at The Folly, Amethyst, is imagined as an antidote. The idea, Akhila explains, is to create a laid-back evening, where poetry and music can be absorbed without urgency. Dance, too, finds a reimagined platform through the third edition of The Diaspora Dance Festival. The festival was born out of a simple question. During Margazhi , the artistes are often competing for space, Akhila notes. What if I created a platform where only they would be there? By doing so, she says, the festival ensures visibility and continuity, while also enabling dialogue between dancers from across geographies. The two-day festival will unfold at Medai, Alwarpet, on December 30 and 31. On December 13, Lil Margazhi marked another facet of Aalaaps curatorial vision. Akhila describes it as a collaboration between children and master storyteller Janaki Sabesh. Across all these formats, Akhila is clear that informality does not mean compromise. What changes, instead, is the atmosphere one that allows art to breathe, audiences to listen without hesitation, and Margazhi to move beyond habit into lived experience.
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