Over the last weekend we hosted the much awaited Margazhi Maha Utsavam in 2 venues in the U.K. This event has been our humble maiden attempt to bring a traditional event to the U.K, rich in cultural and classical artforms. We decided on this event early this year and named it after the iconic Margazhi Maha Utsavam season in Chennai. Based on your active survey participation and inputs we were able to finalise the following 3 acts :
1. Classical instrumental : Mandolin recital by Shri U.Rajesh 2. Spiritual Discourse : Conducted by Shri. Dushyanth Sridhar 3. Classical vocal music : Recital by Shri P Unnikrishnan
Accompanying musicians : Shri. Pravin Narayan on Tabla, Shri. Durai Balasubramanian on the violin, Shri. Pratap Ramachandra on Mridangam, Shri. Prasanna Thevaraja on Ghatam / Morsing.
The last Saturday saw the above 3 acts come to life at the Bulmershe auditorium in Woodley. We began the event around 3:30 pm with a prayer song and a classical music recital by our young local talents. Shortly after we welcomed Shri U Rajesh and team to the stage, who enthralled the audiences with Carnatic, semi-classical numbers as well as evergreen Bharatiyar songs based on audience request. Nearly 2 hours seemed to have whizzed past with the audience yearning for more as Rajesh and team concluded to a standing ovation.
The mandolin recital had set the day to a great start to be followed by 2 more local talent groups performing on this stage before calling upon the second act - a discourse on Lord Vishnu’s Narasimha Avatharam. Shri. Dushyanth Sridhar captivated the audience from across 6 year to 60+ year olds with his seamless and eloquent blend of present-day life, current affairs, spiritual and mythological content. Concluding his act to a standing ovation, he left the audiences both in very good humour as well as with some very important life messages throughout the course of his discourse.
After a short dinner break, the audience returned to fill the auditorium in no time to welcome the final act of the day - a Carnatic music concert from Shri P Unnikrishnan. This act also left the audience soulfully immersed with an elaborate Carnatic recital, progressing to semi-classical and finishing up with an iconic devotional song featuring Harivarasanam and Narayaneeyam, with much of the audience singing along towards the end and concluding the finale act with a standing ovation.
With all the artistes now back on stage, we conveyed our vote of thanks and offered our felicitations and respects to all the artistes for the day. Although it was nearing 10 p.m, the audience were in for another parting delight - a joint final act by the artistes ALL together now - a song in praise of Lord Venkatesha (Venkatachala Nilayam).
We concluded the tour on the Sunday with a discourse from Shri. Dushyanth Sridhar on Mahalakshmi : The Universal Mother, a theme so apt for the venue - Mahalakshmi Temple in Eastham. Despite being a Sunday evening from 6-9 p.m, the event was packed with an enthusiastic audience across all ages and Shri Dushyanth Sridhar having them all in rapt attention and devotion through his own inimitable style.
The visuals of the event across the 2 days are below if you missed it or want to relive the experience :
It was truly fulfilling to have conducted this event over 2 days with such a soulful and rich .classical and spiritual content. We are extremely thankful to all our patrons, volunteers and well-wishers for their role in making this firstly a reality and now a success. We are also deeply grateful to all our partners mentioned below, for placing their trust in us with this maiden attempt and without whom this event would not have been possible :
2019 has indeed been a whirlwind year for us which began with the Legendary SPB U.K tour followed by Rajhesh Vaidhya, Y Gee Mahendra and finally a very memorable and blessed Margazhi Maha Utsavam. We look forward to a short break to recharge and plan ahead and will be in touch with you all as soon as we have a line-up of what’s next !