It is indeed heartening when state governments take initiatives to promote the arts. The Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur was set up years ago but recently been visible in taking the lead in pushing arts and culture in the city with a renewed vigour. A nine-day “Navras” (9 streams) festival starting from 18th March, and concluding on the 26th, will bring to the city of Jaipur a multi-cultural feast in the form of classical music, fusion music, theatre, book readings, and dance.
Perfect venue
The Jawahar Kala Kendra was built in 1987, based on the principles of vaastu by Charles Correra. With clean straight lines, there are plenty of open spaces; the building has two indoor auditoriums, an outdoor auditorium that can seat 1500 people, a library – it is in fact the ideal space for its purpose. Since 2015, with a professional as its new Director, Pooja Sood, and another experienced promoter of the arts, Anuradha Singh (she has worked in Jaipur’s City Palace Museum, as well as the Jaipur Virasat Foundation that initially conceived the Jaipur Literature Fair) as the deputy, the Centre has become more active. As Anuradha Singh said, “This is an arts centre of international standards Every Friday there is an activity – either dance music literature or theatre. Every quarter, we have an activity – Navras, a children’s literature festival, a theatre festival. ”
The Navras Festival opens with a bang with a concert of fusion by Shubha Mudgal on the 18th. The next day, there is an early morning session of classical music, with Vidushi Shruti Sadolikar (incidentally, she is a senior representative of the Jaipur Atrauli gharana, so her inclusion at the Jaipur festival is particularly appropriate). Sadolikar reminisced about how the gharana came to be associated with Jaipur/Atrauli – Ustad Alladiya Khan’s forefathers were originally from this region; patronised by Maharaja Ram Singh. Subsequently, when he settled in Kolhapur, with his newly developed style of gayeki (he had lost the use of his voice for three years and when he regained it, had to create a new style of singing, with dazzling taans and other specialities to detract from the quality of his voice) he was asked what this type of singing style was. He replied Jaipur Atrauli as he originally belonged from there, even though he had developed the style entirely on his own. Such was his humility. “I am looking forward to singing again in Jaipur; My gharana is called Jaipur, Jaipur audience is good; their expectations from artists is of a high level.”
The festival also features a specially commissioned theatre production by Rajendra Panchal “phool kesular phool” celebrating the season, a reading of Krishna Sobti’s book, “Sufiana Kalam” by Zila Khan, theatre production by Abhishek Mazumdar, Aditi Mangaldas’s dance show, Vidya Shah and her performance on “Women on Record” and much else.
