La Makaan- Broadway of Hyderabad

After all, it’s just about rocks in the cozy habitat with its enviable open space. The rocks in the swanky premises, seemingly in Kafkaesque silence and lying with Sisyphean ennui, are not really rudimentary, as they appear to be.

Whether it is before a show, or after the event, the solitary rocks mutely ruminate the empirical endurance of art. It is La Makaan (the abode of the homeless), ‘an inclusive cultural space that promotes and presents the best of arts, literature, theatre, debate and dialogue with a commitment to being open and accessible.’

If the weekly itinerary of La Makaan, whose yearly event-calendar is a choc-a-bloc, is observed, it is indeed a VIBGYOR of varied genres. The uniquely isolated venue in Hyderabad provides space to highbrow English plays, bawdy Hindi dramas, low-key Telugu folklores, maverick poetry sessions, pompous musical concerts, profound film screenings, blistering book launchings and serious socio-political discussions. After getting the place ready in January 2010, La Makaan’s launch set included Qawwali by the Warsi brothers. Since then, La Makaan hosted many plays by Sifar, Nishumbita, Vysal and Udaan, Charlie Porter’s Jazz Quartet as well as documentary screenings by Anand Patwardhan and Akhil Sharma, Film festivals including Palestinian Film Festival, book- launchings by Kavery Nambisan and Rajeev Jhaveri, a presentation about hitchhiking in the North East, a Graffiti art workshop by Jas Charanjiva, Wali Dakni's urdu poetry recital and discussions by renowned journalist of Agence France-Presse (AFP) Bénédicte Manier, Professor Swaminathan, film director Nagesh Kukunoor and Ramana Dhara; and the list goes unending.

During a show in the rocky ambience, surprisingly, the audience, who crammed in with witting or unwitting interest, personify into rocks of passion. After a due course of time, they vacate the abode, but the venue could not desert them, as the reminiscences of show linger in their minds.

It is not only rock-strewn ambience, rock-ribbed audience and rocking curators that made La Makaan so astounding. Above all, the rock-steady zeal of La Makaan trustees- Farhan Ashhar, his better half Humera and Elahe Hiptoola, has crafted it. Interestingly, the three rhapsodists inherited the spirit and essence of Save the Rocks Society- Hyderabad, as Farhan uncle, Hassan, a celebrated photographer, had imbibed the spirit of Rocks Society being part of it. In an extension of his legacy of defying the monetary gravity to save the rocks, Farhan turned the private property into a public abode, keeping the organic backdrop of natural rock formation in tact. Thus, the performances are alive amid participating rocks and under a canopy of trees.

How to book the venue? 

La Makaan was able to invite local talent as well as world-renowned performers. Anybody can perform at La Makaan after approval from its Panel of Curators who include Joe Koster (who heads Hyderabad’s Western Music Forum), Dr Shivalkar (India’s foremost theatre personality) and others. The process is simple, contact the manager, Vemana Madasu, send an email outlining the performance at lamakaan@gmail.com, run the programme by the curators, decide on a date and you’re good to go! The curators themselves often invite artistes to perform here.

“LaMakaan, in Arabic, stands for a house without boundaries and the treatise of talent should be universal. Thus, the trust is also looking to tap visiting performers and artistes from other parts of globe. ‘It's an organic space and it's yours. Do what you will with it,’ sort of sums up the idea behind the venture,” Elahe Hiptoola sums up, in a chitchat with the Sakshipost.

- Naresh@Sakshipost