Yes, poetry is alive in this city. Now, I don’t mean those staid bookreading type events where poets sonorously roll out their prized creations and a rustled-up crowd sits respectfully to the end as words pour over them. I’m talking about lively sessions ofpoetry-sharing that engage and involve. Here’s where the real experience is in Marathi, Hindi, English and Urdu shared with an audience that’s wide awake and interested.
Take Sukhan for example. This is an evening of classic Urdu experience compiled and directed by the brilliant Om Bhutkar which has bowled audiences over in various quarters of the city. This mehfil is enriched by a plethora of compositions from Urdu literature, Hindustani Classical music and Sufi music. It includes Urdu storytelling (Dastaan-goi), Ghazals, Nazms and Urdu prose and Qawwalis. The content has been chosen from a vast treasure of Urdu literature and shayari which includes theworks of Mirza Ghalib, Hafiz Jalandhari, Nida Fazli, SaahirLudhianvi, Ameer Khusrow, Joan Eliya, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Mir Taki Meer, Mujtaba Hissain, Dagh Dehlavi, Muhommad Iqbal and many others. Beautifully crafted to ensure audience engagement.
Sukhan has had the honour of being the inaugural performance of the prestigious Vinod and Saryu Doshi National Theatre Festival , Pune, earlier this year, starring Jaydeep Vaidya, Nachket Devasthali, Abhijeet Dhere, Swapnil Kulkarni, Divya Chaphadkar and Om Bhutkar among an array of distinguished presenters , who quite obviously revel in the magical fusion of words.
There are stalwarts too in the language who keep city audiences awake and alive to the immense possibilities of engaged listening. Celebrity poets such as Nazir Fatehpuri, Rafique Jaafer, Mumtaz Munawar, Aslam Chishti and Zia Baaghpati continue to contribute to the cornucopia so that it perpetually overflows.
Then there are the brothers Shailesh and Yogesh Nandurkar who run Rasik Sahitya, publishers and booksellers, who have now also taken to promoting poetry in Marathi-Hindi in the city through brilliantly curated sessions that stun with exquisite renditions through music and song.
Believe me, this is the tip of the iceberg – below which we have enormous talent delivering work of a very high order. Mystic, the country’s first poetry-music band was born here and is still alive in our city, sharing original English poetry chanted with the accompaniment of Deepak Bhanuse’s enchanting flute and Majid Aziz’s guitar…bringing the East and West into an engrossing flow of melody.
Apart from this, performance poetry in various languages thrives on campuses, in informal cultural spaces and public venues. Young people, irrespective of their backgrounds have taken to the stage like fish to water and can now be seen belting out their feelings with an energy that is breath taking. And that’s not all. I recently experienced an open mike evening where an 80-year-old shared the stage with an 11-year-old. Much of this is the result of groups such as Airplane Poetry Movement, Pune Poetry Slam, Bullock Cart Poetry, Tiny Monkeys (I hope I’ve got this one right!) and a host of others.
So then, there you are, the Muse loves the city and we continue to fete her! Cheers to that.
Randhir Khare is an awardwinning writer, teacher, artist and storyteller who has mentored a whole generation of creative talent. He is Director of Gyaan Adab, Pune’s Premier Cultural Centre. Randhir Khare writes every Wednesday for Pune365.
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