CHENNAI: What freedom have I enjoyed? What has independence given me? There are so many like me. There’s plenty that we get to know because of the news but there is so much that happens that doesn’t make it to the news. Has everyone obtained independence? This is the question,” says Sowmiya of Kattiyakari, the transgender theatre group spearheaded by Sreejith Sundaram, ahead of her participation in Vettiver Collective’s Justice Rocks concert for Independence Day.
Stepping far from the usual tendencies of blind patriotism and rampant jingoism that is usually associated with the day, this concert aptly named Kelvi Koothu hopes to ask the right questions; of the government and its people.
“The last straw was Father Stan Swamy’s death,” begins writer and gender rights activist Archanaa Seker, one of the organisers of the show. “I can’t even say it was the last straw because things like that seem to be happening every day in the country. But that’s the point. The first response was to see if we can organise a protest at Valluvar Kottam but we couldn’t get police permission. So when a number of us were considering how to respond to Stan Swamy’s death, the Pegasus news broke.
This led to the question about how many other issues needed a response starting from the beef ban, to murder by lynching, increasing crimes against women and minorities, to demonetisation to GST to migrant worker crisis to denial of oxygen shortage. So we turned to what we do best, which is use art to ask the right questions. With this, we are mourning the dead while also fighting for the living,” she explains.
The recorded concert would be launched at 6 pm on Vettiver Collective’s YouTube channel. Citizen’s Choir, an amalgamation of politically concerned singers from many choirs in the city, will perform Audrey Assad’s Abide With Me. There’s some Carnatic music in the mix to speak on behalf of the common man. Kalaimamani Muthuchandran and crew are bringing Thol Paavai Koothu from Nagercoil. They will perform the section of Ramayana that has Vibhishana questioning Ravana about the treatment of his subjects. Kattiyakari Theatre Group will perform two poems one by journalist Kavin Malar and writer Manushyaputhiran. The concert will also feature the very Chennai art of gaana. Isaivani of The Casteless Collective, Gana Muthu and his aunt Muniammaal will perform original numbers.
All is in place because only art can make these uncomfortable truths palatable, offers Gana Muthu. He breaks into a song about persuading a friend to give up alcohol as an example, suggesting that’s far more likely to work than conventional methods. It’s this principle that they are bringing to the problems that plague the country today. At the end of the day, it’s a Justice Rocks concert and it will be devoid of preaching or speeches; the art will speak for itself, assures Archanaa.