Pune Festival dazzles in its grandeur

PUNE: The inauguration of the 22nd edition of the Pune Festival on Friday evening at Ganesh Kala Krida Rangmanch, witnessed a dazzling display of the colours and culture of Maharashtra. Union minister for New and Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah, lit the traditional lamp and declared the festival open. Dance doyen and actress Hema Malini offered Ganesh Vandana' along with her daughters, Esha and Ahana. The festive spirit continued with the celebration of 50 gloriousyears of Maharashtra with Maharashtra Geet.' The unique song and danceperformance, choreographed by Santosh Sankhad and Dhananjay Bhawalekar, featuredsinger Bela Shende, and actresses Mrinmayee Deshpande and Bhargavi Chirmule,among others. An audio-visual-theatrical presentation with elaborateensembles and colourful costumes, lent Maharashtrian charm showcasing thetradition of Ganesh Pooja from the time of Chhatrapati Shivaraj Maharaj throughthe Peshwai era and Lokmanya Tilak to the present day. And typicalto the festival's tradition, awards were conferred by Abdullah to GaanSaraswati, Kishori Amonkar and industrialists, Cyrus Poonawalla and Anu Aga."While we get dazzled by the growing GDP growth of our country, wecannot afford to neglect the deprived, denied and the discriminated against. Itsaddens me to see the haphazard growth of Pune and the lack of basic amenitiesour people are facing. Let's hope for and work towards a better future," saidAga, while accepting her award. Amonkar sincerely urged her audienceto not get carried away by the myriad musical overdoses. "This can be counteredby dedication to the classical music," she said. The inauguralfunction ended with a fine finale, Lawani Bavankhani - The Pride ofMaharashtra's Folk,' a sequence of celebrated lawani' numbers, featuringactresses, Amrita Khanvilkar, Sonalee Kulkarni and Deepali Sayyed.Other dignitaries present on the occasion were -- minister of statefor home, Ramesh Bagwe, minister for forests, government of Maharashtra,Patangrao Kadam, minister for revenue, government of Maharashtra, Narayan Rane,minister for co-operatives, Harshwardhan Patil, Pune's mayor, Mohansingh Rajpal,divisional commissioner, Dilip Band, and Pune municipal commissioner, MaheshZagade.