Jashn-E-Rekhta, India’s Biggest Urdu Fest, is Back & Better

Celebrate Urdu this weekend with qawwalis and dastaangoi as a bigger and better Jashn-e-Rekhta comes back to Delhi.

Jashn-e-Rekhta 2017 will begin the celebrations on the evening of 8 December

Photo Courtesy: Rekhta Foundation 

The festival celebrating the timeless beauty and eloquence of Urdu, Jashn-e-Rekhta is back with its much awaited 4th edition from 8-10 December at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, New Delhi.

Organised by the Rekhta Foundation, the three-day long celebration aspires to open up the sensory experience of living and loving a language and endeavors to engage, enlighten and entertain audiences from diverse backgrounds. The Quint is delighted to be the digital partner of this edition of the festival.

Jashn-e-Rekhta’s 4th edition will let lovers of Urdu, see and experience the language and its creative richness in all forms including dastangoi (story-telling), musical renditions, dance, mushaira, qawwali, ghazal singing, discussions, calligraphy exhibitions, bazaar, Urdu prose and poetry readings and much more.

The Stellar Line Up

Jashn-e-Rekhta 2017 will begin the celebrations on the evening of 8 December with a musical performance by ghazal maestro Ustad Rashid Khan. The festival will witness the poetic genius of Javed Akhtar who will talk about literature, shayari, zindagi in his session ‘Kuch Ishq kiya Kuch Kaam Kiya’.

A panel discussion on the depiction of Muslim culture in Indian cinema will witness the presence of eminent personalities like Waheeda Rehman, Shabana Azmi, Ira Bhaskar and Muzaffar Ali. While Annu Kapoor will chronicle poetry, music and history around Urdu, including folk tales related to Laila-Majnu.

Renowned actor-director Aamir Raza Husain with his recitation and the renowned singer Radhika Chopra with her renditions will together bring to life the beautiful work and the blazing legacy of Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar are going to be a part of the 4th edition of Jash-e-Rekhta(Photo courtesy: Youtube/Bombay Times)

The lovers of Manto will be in for a treat as Nawazuddin Siddiqui shares his experience of living the great Urdu fiction writer Manto. Nandita Das and he in the session ‘Manto ke Rubaru’ will talk about her love for Manto and what made Manto the film into a reality.

Nandita Das with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Rasika Dugal meet for a script reading of Manto. (Photo courtesy: Hardly Anonymous Communications)

The highly acclaimed singer, Shubha Mudgal will re-visit the revolutionary spirit of progressive poets by singing the ‘Poetry of Protest’. Tanya Wells, a singer born and raised in London and famous for her renditions of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s ghazals, is Jashn-e-Rekhta’s special guest this year who is coming all the way from Brazil to perform.

To add to the spirit of the festivities, the ‘Grand Mushaira’ at Jashn-e-Rekhta will witness some of the best names among contemporary Urdu poets like Rahat Indori, Javed Akhtar amongst others.

Audience will also get to witness the spectacular performance by Sufi-kathak exponent Manjari Chaturvedi and storytelling by the magical storyteller Neelesh Misra, who will present an interplay of literature, history and the performing art woven into a performance, representing the “Tawaifs”.

Varun Grover, the renowned lyricist and the man behind songs like ‘Moh moh ke dhaage’ and ‘Man kasturi’ amongst others, who is also a stand-up comedian par excellence, will perform also be seen at the festival speaking on the humor in language, idiom and poetry.

Manoj Muntashir, renowned lyricist will drive a freewheeling conversation around how Indian film music and Urdu have been best friends since a very long time. The festival will give a chance to people to get drenched in a unique mix of poetry, music and storytelling curated as "Sukhan" by the much talented team from Pune.

The Jashn will have a special session on reliving the magic of Dakkani Urdu with guests from Hyderabad.  As a unique and new element in Jashn-e-Rekhta this year, Parvaaz – a contemporary music band from Bangalore – will merge Urdu and progressive rock together in their performance.

The renowned Urdu doyen Professor Gopi Chand Narang will celebrate Indian mythology in Urdu poetry, and popular poet Ashok Chakradhar will speak on the ‘jugalbandi’ of Urdu and Hindi. Dastangoi will take the audience on a time-travel as the storytellers unearth old, forgotten tales at the festival.

Madan Gopal Singh, renowned singer, will perform with his ensemble Chaar Yaar. The Jashn will close with qawwali by the Kun Faya Kun fame Nizami Bandhu.

Urdu For All

Several open forum spaces and interactive sessions will give chance to the audience to read their poetry and stories to a wide audience, to encourage people to write and recite their poetry. The festival will also witness numerous new talents from the Urdu literary and cultural cosmos.

The spell of Rekhta Bazaar remains unbroken since 2015, so the festival is back with the fragrance of itr, the antiquities of old Delhi, handicrafts, the delicate beauty of chikankari along with an elaborate book exhibition spanning across Urdu, Hindi and English.

Dr Sanjiv Saraf, founder of Rekhta Foundation and the force behind Jashn-e-Rekhta says,

Urdu is not merely a language but an entire culture unto itself and touches the heart and soul of anyone who comes in contact with it. Jashn-e-Rekhta showcases how Urdu lends itself to various art forms be it literature, music, films, art, theatre, dance, oral storytelling etc. I am overwhelmed to see the response, the previous three editions of the festival have received and can now see Urdu starting to emerge and resonate among hundreds of thousands of people cutting across age, gender, social, economic, religious or geographical divides. Jashn-e-Rekhta, in its fourth edition will continue in its endeavor to bring Urdu closer to people and I invite all to come and be a part of this Jashn with us

Dr. Sanjiv Saraf, Founder, Rekhta Foundation