The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Songs that speak of life's transience

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 13, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Songs that speak of life's transience

Staff Reporter

National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC) highlights the Ghana tradition

POWERFUL RENDITION: Ghana singers S. Dharman (right) and S. Venugopal performing in Chennai on Tuesday. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI : They are songs that move people, songs that speak of the transient nature of life. The music repertoire of the slum dwellers of Chennai, the songs sound the loudest in the event of a death.

The National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC) presented on Tuesday the Ghana tradition, an evening with 67-year-old S. Dharman and 58-year-old S. Venugopal.

Mr. Dharman, apart from singing for Tamil cinema, has also been composing and singing folk songs since he was seven. His songs revolve around subaltern lifestyles and their turmoil and express his deep-rooted belief in religious secularism. He lives on the city's pavements, "but I am a happy person nevertheless."

Mr. Venugopal, aka Mylai Venu, is an exponent of Gunakudi Masthan Sahib's songs and Islamic devotional songs. With the theme of religious secularism, Mr. Venugopal gave an intense rendering of the songs of Gunakudi Masthan and Mayuram Vedanayakapillai.

V. Ramakrishnan, a research collaborator for NFSC's collaborative research project on `Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Marginalised in Chennai City,' obtained his Ph.D. on the subject. "The common misunderstanding is that cinema songs are Ghana songs," he said. Ghana is a term referring to songs that had a strong death orientation like the `Oppari,' and is prevalent in the slums of Pulianthope, Thousand Lights and in the North Chennai areas.

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