Tamil Movie Review

Tamil Maiyam & Dept. of Tourism and Culture, Govt of Tamil Nadu presents this festival that was been carried throughout the whole city from January 10-16, 2009. Rather than saying it as festival i would say a Chennai Carnival or Chennai's White Night.

This Chennai Sangamam was organized by Kanimozhi (Member of Parliament) daughter of our Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi. Chennai Sangamam is basically an idea of bringing all the folk artist together and make to perform in front of huge crowd. Most of the city based people dont know much about the these folk artist and about their performance. There were more than 2000 folk artist who performed in and around the whole city from January 10-16.

I had a chance to visit few place where this Chennai Sangamam was been carried out, seriously i hav't seen anything like this so artistic, so colorful, and very energetic, and the folk artist very so friendly and were very joyful to see so much of people enjoying their performance.

To start with the first the grand opening,
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi inaugurated 'Chennai Sangamam 2009' a cultural festival, at the Centenary Auditorium of the University of Madras where Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi and Union Minister of Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni also took part in the grand opening programme.







After inauguration the folk artist started performing in front of these ministers. The most prominent thing was Drums Sivamani joined this festival and even performed in the inaugural event and later he joined all the folk artist people and gave a superb performance, Sivamani with his own style of beats combined with the folk beats created a superb fusion type that was really awesome.








These are the place where Chennai Sangamam celebrated.
1. Chennai Corporation Ground, Kodambakkam Trustpuram,
2. TVK Nagar School ground, TVK Nagar,
3. Lady Wellington College Grounds, Marina Beach Drive,
4. Nageswara Roa Park Luz Church Road, Mylapore,
5. Natesan Park Venkat Narayana Road, T. Nagar,
6. Tower Park, Anna Nagar,
7. Sivan Park, P.T. Rajan Salai, K.K. Nagar,
8. Thanthai Periyar Ground, Valasaravakkam,
9. Ashok Nagar Park – Ashok Nagar,
10. Elliots Beach – Besant Nagar,
11. Anna Park – Royapuram,
12. Independence Day Park – Nungambakkam,
13. Island Ground,
14. Thiru.Vi. Ka Park -- Shenoy Nagar,
15. ECR Road – Palkalai Nagar Palavakkam,
16. Contonement School Ground, GST Road, Pallavaram.


The most prominent in the Chennai Sangamam was The Finale. The closing ceremony took place at Elliots Beach – Besant Nagar started at 5:00 p.m and went up till 10:00 p.m, almost whole Chennai people had gathered to see Sivamani to preform live at Elliots Beach.

Apart from Sivamani there was other world famous artist who took part in this Chennai Sangamam, My favourite Dr.Kadari Gopalnath famous for Saxaphone recital- classical, performed in this festival. O S Arun famous for carnatic music, Lawrence Raghavendra'S Dance Group, Bombay Jayashri- Carnatic Vocal, Bhairavi & Malavi – Carnatic Vocal, Saindhavi – Carnatic Vocal Music, Nithyasri – Carnatic Vocal

Somehow got time and visited Chennai Sangamam with friends had been to Natesan Park Venkat Narayana Road, T. Nagar on 14th of January and to Elliots Beach – Besant Nagar on the 16th of January to watch the grand finale. Actually I should thank one of my friend Shwetha she was the key person who convinced us to come for Chennai Sangamam, this was the first time I saw Chennai Sangamam and we were so lucky I should say because when we were at the Elliots Beach it was so jam packed but still managed to go near the stage so that we could take pictures of Sivamani, later we saw the Sivamani got down of stage after he arranged his drums and other equipments we both ran backside of the stage to see Sivamani little closer. and guess what I spoke to Sivamani and requested for photo and he said no problem but make it fast because I have to perform. I thought I should give Shwetha a chance first because she's crazy about Sivamani and she was the one who made this happen, and this is that picture Shwetha with Sivamani.


Looking at us taking picture with Sivamani even others requested and the place got little crowd after when we swapped the camera and when i again requested Sivamani he said he can’t and then started leaving. Later another friend of mine Sharat joined us to see Sivamani's performance. At the end of the we all had nice fun, I guess it was the luckiest day for three of us. When were about to start towards home i saw a man dressed like a demon, was looking so horror and so colorful, I thought i should take a picture with him. I requested and he smiled because everyone was scared looking at him and this the picture me with the demon

My other friends looked at the picture said that even i should have showed some facial expression then it would have been much horror and interesting.

In this video NDTV shows how Chennai Sangamam was really created.

Folk Dance at TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) at Siruseri

Kerala Drums and folk dance at Natesan Park Venkat Narayana Road, T. Nagar,

South India's famous folk dance Kaavadi Aattam.

Kaavadi Aattam part 2

Still Much more video's of Chennai Sangamam to come.