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Viji keeps traditional Marana Gana alive!!! He composes his own songs and has written own plays! Gana is Chennai's own folk music -- a rap-like genre considered as one of the dying art forms by some scholars. But Marana Gana Viji believes otherwise. He thinks the art form would live on for generations as it has already survived for over a century. He has been singing death Ganas in different parts of Chennai for more than a decade.
Gana is a traditional genre of singing that is prevalent in Chennai neighborhoods. Usually spontaneous & sometimes meaningful, Gana was made popular among the masses by Tamil Cinema. Gana Viji is a reasonably well-known singer in this circuit, but what makes him stand out from the rest is that he specialises in Marana Gana (Death Gana), a requiem which is a common practice in communities.
Living in proximity with death has sculpted this intriguing man. A physically challenged boy forsaken to the streets by parents and society, he eventually found home in a cemetery, scrapping out a meagre sustenance by recycling the robes and the metallic remains from cremated bodies. And now, he's famous for his power-packed singing and his book 'Naan sanditha maranangal' (The deaths I have encountered). Meet Marana Gana Viji, Chennai's most sought after 'death song' or 'marana Gana' singer.
