Baaja Gaaja is Shubha Mudgal's and Dr. Aneesh Pradhan's vision of creating a space for musicians and music lovers to “meet, enjoy and celebrate”. For three days, more than 100 artists from genres as varied as rock, blues, jazz, Hindustani and Carnatic vocal and instrumental and folk music will meet in Pune.
“The strength of the festival is the audience who believe in diversity and are willing to listen to the large variety of music that India has to offer,” said Shubha Mudgal.
One highlight will be ‘Dhamaal' a percussion ensemble put together by Dr. Aneesh Pradhan. The ensemble includes Tabla players, Dhol Tasha players from Pune, a group called Manipur Drummers, and Dilip Das and his group of Dhak players from West Bengal among others.
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Apart from regular music acts, a special section called Music Conclave has been introduced to serve as a space for inter-disciplinary arts to collaborate and discuss. Two different sessions will concentrate on music in films and literature. “Sujoy Ghsoh (“Jhankaar Beats”), Imtiaz Ali (“Rockstar”) and Amol Palekar, who made a film on Kishori Amonkar, will chair a session on how music is used as an integral part of narrative in films,” said Shubha Mudgal. The session on literature will include Kiran Nagarkar, whose new book
Bottomline: Diversity of India's musical traditions on display
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