Art with a heart

CHENNAI: From the time of Rabindranath Tagore, we’ve seen artists try to raise awareness on issues related to the girl child. In his popular short story, The Exercise Book, the bard of Bengal spoke from the point of view of an intelligent girl child who is forcefully pushed into child marriage and is emotionally affected by it. And what better time than now, when the country is still recovering from the shock of the death of three-month-old Neha Afreen who was allegedly beaten up by her father, to continue what Tagore tried to accomplish.Taking inspiration from Tagore, city-based musicians Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan, along with thespian Dhritiman Chatterji, have formed their own ‘Exercise Book’ in order to address problems of the girl child. The project is one of many from Chennai that have been submitted to Orange Street, an online forum initiated by NGO NalandaWay to raise funds for socially engaged art projects. Anil and Sikkil’s project is a presentation that will combine the poetry of Tagore and Bharathiar, and will include stage performances with workshops in schools. Anil explains that they will reach out to corporation school students through carnatic music and storytelling, and stresses the need for more performing artists to reach out to society through the arts. “I was born with a certain musical talent, and through exposure and education, I have acquired a certain level of expertise. I look at it as a responsibility (to use this towards the benefit of the society),” says Anil. “With every privilege comes a responsibility.”  Like Anil and Sikkil, Sunil Vishnu, co-founder, Evam Entertainment, says he realised a core reality just as his company was nearing a decade of its existence. “Art is very important to the social fabric,” he says. Theatre group Evam’s latest project, as part of Orange Street, is The Long Way Home. “When you drive you see many kids on the road, but you don’t know what to do. It is a strange and uneasy feeling – should you ignore them or sympathise with them,” Sunil says, explaining that this is what playwright Shekinah Jacob experienced when she wrote the play that tackles child trafficking. Sunil and director of the play Karthik Kumar hope to generate discussion and debate on the topic during the course of production. “People can join the movement now through monetary contribution or can be part of the production in some other way,” says Sunil. By the end of the production in September, the duo feels nobody must be left out of the loop, “Nobody must be left vague, wondering what to do. We will provide them with tangible ways in which they can help,” explains Sunil. It is one thing to raise funds to create awareness, but it is another to make people act. “We are not asking contributors to be involved at an activism level but want them to help the next man at a bare minimum level. We are trying to make people part of the project and take ownership for it,” explains Rajiv Rajaram from theatre group Stray Factory, which is raising funds for Project Andromeda that deals with disability. “We are going to have a short film, a play and video installations to try and come up with an interactive platform,” he adds. Apart from focusing on making public places more disabled-friendly, the group is looking at various other awareness aspects at a broader level. “After all, theatre is meant to entertain and inform,” says Rajiv.