The third edition of the much-celebrated Urdu festival ‘Jashn-e-Rekhta’ will be held in Delhi from February 17-19. The festival, endeavouring to engage, enlighten and entertain audiences from diverse backgrounds, will be a free public event.
Organized by the Rekhta foundation, that curates an online repository of Urdu poetry, Jashn-e-Rekhta 2017 will host Gulzar to enchant one and all with his poetry and gripping anecdotes. He will be in a conversation with the noted lyricist, Javed Siddiqui and will talk about how all literary creation is a dream that the writer/poet lives.
Other eminent personalities who’ll attend the three-day long festival include Prasoon Joshi, Irfan Habib, Sharmila Tagore, MS Sathyu, Annu Kapoor, Wasim Barelvi, Ashok Chakradhar, Kumar Vishwas, Prem Chopra, Saurabh Shukla, Justice TS Thakur, Nadira Babbar and Salman Khurshid among many others.
A panel discussion on the old and forgotten practices and forms of theatre will witness the presence of the inimitable Saurabh Shukla. Prasoon Joshi will discuss the evolution of Urdu in Bollywood lyrics and how the language helped him expand his literary expression. Javed Siddiqui and Prem Chopra along with Bhawana Somaaya will also share the stage to narrate the journey of Urdu over the years of evolution of the Indian cinema.
Renowned historian, Irfan Habib, will chronicle the ancient and medieval history of Delhi while Shamim Hanfi will present the blazing legacy of Firaq Gorakhpuri. Kumar Vishwas will present some untouched, untold stories from the life of Jaun Eliya and other participants will exchange views on the converging themes, metaphors, and form in poetry in Hindi and Urdu. Annu Kapoor will also grace the evening with ‘Urdu Suroñ ka Mausam-e-Bahaar’.
“Rekhta is a movement to preserve and promote the rich literary and cultural heritage of Urdu, by availing technology and social media platforms as well as by celebrating its versatility and splendor. Jashn-e-Rekhta is an extension of the same commitment to reclaim our rich heritage. I feel overwhelmed to see the response, the previous two 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 third edition, will continue to keep Urdu alive in the public consciousness and I invite all to come and be a part of this Jashn with us”, said Dr. Sanjiv Saraf, founder of Rekhta Foundation.