Dilli shows some love for Urdu
This festival of dance, drama and music will celebrate the poetics and power of Urdu language
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The city is gearing up to profess love for Urdu language with the second edition of the three-day festival, Jashne-Rekhta. This year, the fest gets bigger and better with participation from poets, lyricists, artists and literary figures from India and Pakistan both.
Organised by Rekhta Foundation, the fest will see participation from popular personalities such as Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Mahesh Bhatt, Nandita Das, Imtiaz Ali, Tom Alter, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Sabri Brothers, to name a few. “While some will participate in panel discussions, others will perform in plays, qawwalis, mushairas and dastangoi, to exhibit different shades of Urdu literature,” says Sanjiv Saraf from Rekhta Foundation.
The festival will also see a Kathak performance by dancers Vidha and Abhimanyu Lal. “I will perform a dance piece on an Urdu couplet expressing love and chemistry between two lovers,” says Vidha. Her performance will be followed by Tarana in Raag Darbari, which exhibits Mughal dance culture.
The play Ghalib Ke Khat by M Sayeed Alam will feature veteran actor Tom Alter. What will also make a comeback with the festival is the popular Urdu Bazaar, where shopkeepers from Old Delhi will display a variety of handicrafts, attars, jewels and shawls reeking of the Mughal era.
In addition, there will also be a food spread of different cuisines such as Awadhi, Kashmiri, Hyderabadi and Mughlai by chefs from around the city. WHAT: : Jashn-e-Rekhta,
WHERE: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), 1 Janpath WHEN: February 12 to 14
TIMINGS: 11am to 9pm ENTRY: Free
NEAREST METRO
STATION: Central Secretariat on the Yellow Line