With Covid-19 pandemic subsiding, connoisseurs of music, culture, art and literature are up for a bonanza in Madhya Pradesh as three major nationally acclaimed festivals are scheduled between March 11 and 27 in different cities across the state.
The events are being held in collaboration with the MP Department of Culture and Tourism and will see participation of eminent artists and literary personalities from across India and abroad.
The fiesta will commence with the famed Ustad Allauddin Khan Sangeet Samaroh (music festival) at Maihar in Satna district from March 11 to 13. The fest is a joint venture of the Satna district administration, local organising committee, Ustad Allauddin Khan Sangeet evam Kala Academy of the MP Sanskriti Parishad with local citizens and the culture department.
The event that will commence at 7.30pm at Stadium Ground, Maihar, will be open to all free of cost. Culture and Tourism Minister Usha Thakur will be the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony.
The inaugural day will see performances of acclaimed Maihar musical band, artists Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt and Salil Bhatt of Jaipur on Mohan Veena-Satvik Veena, vocal by Rashmi Choudhary of Lucknow and a jugalbandi of Kathakali and Bharatnatyam by Pallipuram Sunil and Paris Laxmi from Kottayam, Kerala. The fest will continue till March 13 with several other performances.
Hriday Drishyam Musical Feast
Meanwhile, the fifth edition of Hriday Drishyam – a mega musical feast of the state culture and tourism department featuring national and international as well as local artists will commence on March 12. It will continue till March 15 with different performances at Bhopal, Indore, Bateshwar group of temples (Morena) and historic Mandu (Dhar).
Among some of the acclaimed performers will be Amaan Ali Bangash on Sarod and Almudena Longares of Spain (Spanish folk music) on the inaugural day in Bhopal. Among other inaugural performers will be Purbayan Chatterjee on Sitar, Bharti Bandhu (Kabir gayan and Sufi music) and Shefali (pop-rock).
Bhopal Literature and Art Festival
The fourth edition of the Bhopal Literature & Art Festival (BLF) would be held from March 25 to 27 at the Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal. The three-day long festival will see participation of a large number of well-known thought leaders, authors, former bureaucrats, environmentalists and other celebrities. Former IAS officer Raghav Chandra, who is the President of the Society for Culture and Environment, which is organising the BLF with department of culture and tourism, said that while the festival is aimed at enhancing overall appreciation of good literature, especially among the city's young population. It is an endeavour to build the event as a 'Knowledge Festival' in which independent thinkers, academicians, authors, society leaders and experienced bureaucrats meet to discuss and present their ideas, experience and their new literary creations, Chandra said. ‘Along with established writers, we have also invited new thought-leaders this time round', he said in a press statement.
Among those who have confirmed participation include columnist Shobhaa De, former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, former Ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin,, former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, authors Parthasarathy Sen Sharma, Anukriti Upadhyay, Ami Ganatra, Kiran Manral, R.N. Bhaskar, diplomat Soumya Gupta, acclaimed French novelist Pascal Bruckner, historian Vikram Sampath, writer Sahana Singh, woman flight lead Manisha Mohan, Brussels terror attack survivor Nidhi Chaphekar, former Central Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar, former Ambassador to EU and Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri, leading art curator Alka Pande, corporate coach Bharat Whaklu, civil servant and Mt Everest conqueror Ravindra Kumar, ornithologist Dr Satish Pande, authors Harshali Singh and Sadhana Shankar, environmentalists Krupa Ge, Aparna Karthikeyan, Suruchi Pande, Sanjay Kumar and Viju B. have confirmed their participation, the organisers said.
There will be special sessions on gallantry and heroism which will include participation of General Milan Naidu, General R.S. Bhadauria, Ambreen Zaidi, Nitin Gokhale, Colonel Rohit Agarwal, UP Thapliyal and others.
Authors from Madhya Pradesh who will join the event include Dr Pradeep Kapoor, Abhilash Khandekar, Tarun Pithode, Pravir Krishna, H.S. Pabla, Anurag Pathak, O.P. Shrivastava, Dr Ritu Sharma and others are also being given a platform to present their scholarly works. The First Lady of Iceland Eliza Reid will also be a speaker through virtual mode.
