1 day Ago
The sixth edition of Kabir Festival is set to kickstart today at the Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Academy. The three-day event will have plays, discussions, singing performances, folk dances, film screening, literary events and other performing art activities. The highlight of this year’s fest will be a discussion titled Kya Gazab Kirdaar Tha Wo, Jo Humara Yaar Tha with the late actor Irfaan’s wife and writer-producer Sutapa Sikdar, where she will share stories of love, creativity, and their extraordinary journey of the legendary actor on Saturday.
This year three plays including Jeena Is Ka Naam Hai (Sunday) starring actor Rajendra Gupta and Himani Shivpuri, director Vinay Sharma’s Dosh (Saturday) featuring actor Harsh Khurana and Sarika Singh and Lucky Gupta’s Maa Mujhe Tagore Bana De (Friday), to be staged at the fest. “The plays are dedicated to Padma Shri the late Raj Bisaria saheb. The two plays are based on relationships, whereas Tagore.
.. is an experimental play that has had 1,500 shows held so far.
We are looking forward to being a part of Irfaan Khan’s magical stories from Sutapa who was gracious to accept our invitation,” says Sangeeta Jaiswal, member of the organising Dastak group. On the musical front, the festival will be inaugurated with a special kathak ballet Haman Hai Ishq Mastana by Preeti and her troupe. On the opening day, Kabir songs by Indore-based Anjana Saxena and qwwalis by Roman Arfi and team will be presented.
The second day will have a live performance by Tamay Mukherjee and his Drum Circle while on the concluding day, a performance by Indian Idol fame singer Kuldip will be staged. A three-day workshop Samjho Cinema will be presented by Avinash Kumar, a visiting professor at IIM Kozhikode and other renowned institutions. “Mostly festivals are for a niche audience but the endevour is to decentralise it and involve all classes with a variety of programmes.
We are also organising yoga, art workshops, pottery making, painting and open mic to involve more and more youngsters,” adds Jaiswal..
