Kuala Lumpur, 13th January 2017 – In its effort to preserve the Indian folk arts, Astro is bringing its Ponggu Tamil again this year to Kulim, Rawang and Bagan Datuk from 13 to 17 January 2017.
Ponggu Tamil is an annual celebration of Indian arts and culture since it started in 2013. It is an on-going effort by Astro to give Malaysian Indians the exposure on folk arts from Tamil Nadu.
Dr. Rajamani Chellamuthu, Senior Vice President, Content Management Group, Astro said, ‘‘Indian folk arts have been around for over many centuries, but as time progressed, it has gradually been forgotten. I believe that Ponggu Tamil will be a solid platform to bring back the forgotten Indian folk arts.
“We will continue to encourage other youngsters to instill interest and build a community that understands and appreciate the culture and tradition of folk arts”, he added.
This year’s Ponggu Tamil theme is “Konggu Madalam”, where we will be introducing 4 different folk arts, which are Kambathu aattam - a traditional dance utilizes related props and salangai in a slow to fast move, Kurumbarattam - a fast moving rhythmic and well-coordinated dance performed by generations of the hillside natives, Mallar Kambam – a unique game to develop all organs of the body and provides optimum exercise to almost all the body part and Jikkaattam - a dance primarily performed by male artists during festival celebrations.
The public will also treated to an array of traditional foods and musical performances performed by well-known artists such as Velmurugan, Ramya NSK, Super Singer Diwakar, 2016 Astro’s Superstar singing competition winners Kumaresh and Naarayani.
For fourth year in a row, 16 talented Malaysian Indian youths were selected to learning various folk arts of Tamil origin, they were sent to Ooty in Tamil Nadu, India, for 14-day learning experience. They will their skills in performing the folk arts that they have learned during the ground event of Ponggu Tamil.
The entire training experience was documented and the first episode will premiere on January 14th at 7.30pm on Astro on the Go (AOTG) and Astro Vinmeen HD (231) in conjunction with the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal. Subsequent episodes will be aired from Monday to Friday, 9pm, starting from Jan 16.
Ponggu Tamil will also be aired on Astro Vaanavil (201) on NJOI and pay TV, every Saturday & Sunday, starting from Jan 28 at 7pm.
