The three-day Gurgaon Utsav kicks off this Friday.
The festival will take place in the amphitheatre at the Aravalli Biodiversity Park here every evening.
The Gurgaon Utsav, a much awaited event in the city, is the residents’ initiative that creates a platform for showcasing performing arts.
It will feature innovative theatre and music with a strong underlying strand of tradition.
Tribute to Begum Akhtar
The Utsav begins on March 20 with Akhtari- singer Vidya Shah and a dastangoi by Danish Hussain on Begum Akhtar. They will pay tribute to Begum Akhtar through ghazals, thumris and daadras.
On March 21 Mukhtiyar Ali, a well-known folk singer from Bikaner in Rajasthan, will blend the Rajasthani folk idiom with refined classicism to sing the poetry of Kabir, Mira and Sufi poets such as Bulleh Shah.
On March 22, the festival will end with Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry’s interpretation of Manto’s ‘Licence, A Tongawala’ titled License -- The Untitled Saga.
This production has her distinctive style and filled with several levels of meaning, subtexts and allusions.
The play tells the story of Niti, a rich man’s daughter, and a tongawallah, Suraj, with whom she elopes.
Suraj is arrested and requests his friend to provide money to his wife by running the tonga.
“The betrayal of the friend, a hostile world, and poverty makes Niti decide that she will now operate the tonga herself. The internal and external conflict she has to deal with is an example of Manto’s brilliance to capture a multitude of facets much ahead of his time,” says Ms. Chowdhry.
Adding that for her, the biggest challenge was the transformation of Niti from a woman to a “man”.
The Gurgaon Utsav is presented by the Arts and Literature Foundation with the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon and the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Haryana.
It is a unique collaboration between citizens, the government and corporates who have invested in Gurgaon.
Entry to the Utsav is free.
Gurgaon Utsav is a residents’ initiative that creates a platform for showcasing performing arts. It also showcases a unique collaboration between the citizens, the government and the corporates
