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Chennai's
culture reflects its diverse population.
The city is known for its classical
dance shows and Hindu temples. Every
December, Chennai holds a five weeklong
Music Season, which has been described
as one of the world's largest cultural
events. The Music Season encompasses
performances (kutcheries) of traditional
Carnatic music by hundreds of artists in
and around the city.
Chennai is also known for the classical
Indian dance, the Bharatanatyam, which
is also the official dance of Tamil Nadu.
An important cultural center for
Bharatanatyam is Kalakshetra (Sanskrit
for "place of the arts"), located on the
beach in the south of the city.
Chennai has a vibrant theatre scene,
with a large number of Tamil plays being
performed. In general, Tamil theatre is
divided into the sabha-oriented
theatres, which are parodies on
political issues or trends supported by
slapstick comedy, and the non-sabha
oriented theatre, which includes serious
plays and historical plays. English
theatre is also popular in Chennai.
School and college cultural festivals
(locally called culfests) play an
important role by providing platforms
for the city's youth to indulge in art
and culture. These culfests attract
participants from around India. Some of
the larger culfests in the city are
Saarang (IIT Madras), Deep Woods (Madras
Christian College) and Down Sterling
(Loyola).
Chennai is the base for the large Tamil
movie industry, dubbed Kollywood after
the locality of Kodambakkam where most
of the movie studios are located. The
industry makes about 300 Tamil movies a
year and its film soundtracks dominate
the music scene in the city.
Chennai celebrates a number of
festivals. Pongal, celebrated in the
month of January, is the most important
festival of and is celebrated over a
period of five days. Tamil New Year's
day signifying the beginning of the
Tamil calendar usually falls on April 14
and is celebrated widely. Being a
cosmopolitan city, almost all major
religious festivals like Divali, Eid and
Christmas are celebrated here.
The majorities of residents in Chennai
are native Tamilians and speak Tamil.
English is widely spoken and is used
almost exclusively in business,
education and other white-collar
professions. Tamil spoken in Chennai
uses English words liberally, so much so
that it is often called Madras bhashai
(Tamil for "Madras language"). There is
also a sizeable Telugu-speaking minority
in the city. Other languages spoken
include Malayalam, and Urdu. A regional
hub since British times, Chennai has a
large number of Marwari traders. Other
prominent communities are the Anglo
Indian, Bengali, Punjabi and people from
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. |
