A musical tribute to Mirza Ghalib in Lucknow

Mirza Ghalib’s life and his poems were brought to life on a Sunday evening at a club in Qaiserbagh, where Lucknowites revived his poetries in a musical form. Titled ‘Mirza Ghalib - A musical narrative’, the event saw a lot of poetry lovers from Lucknow who got to witness Ghalib’s poem in the form of narratives and ghazals by Salim Arif and ghazal singer Tauseef Akhtar.
Salim Arif narrated anecdotes of Ghalib’s poetry and several incidents in his life like the death of his seven children, his religious views, his sense of humour, his political views, and various other aspects of the shayar’s life. Later, Tauseef Akhtar sang a ghazal related to each particular incident.
"In the current times, when a lot of people are getting inclined towards poetry, especially youngsters, it has become important to re-introduce Ghalib now," said Arif, adding, "Since the past 14-15 years, a lot of efforts were made by people in different cities to revive Urdu language, which has resulted in the re-positioning of the language now. In a city like Lucknow, Urdu is a part of our legacy and iss shehar ko uss zubaan se alag nahi dekha jaa sakta kyunki Urdu ka naam lete hi aapko Lucknow ka khayaal aa jaata hai."
Talking about the reason for lending a musical note to Ghalib's poems, Tauseef shared, "We have made Ghalib contemporary for the newer generation in the show. Since a lot of legends have performed ghazals of Ghalib, so keeping in mind the choice of the present generation, we composed the ghazals accordingly and have tried to make the audience familiar with his works. Ghalib’s poetry surpasses time and language. Though he died in 1869, he is still the most popular poet of all times."
The musical evening consisted of 12 ghazals which earned the singer a lot of appreciation. Salim’s way of narration of Ghalib’s life brought a smile on the audience’s face and made them say ‘bahut khoob janaab!'
Amit Malhotra, the curator and producer of the show, said. "I have been following Ghalib since 1995, when I started reading poetry seriously. Initially it was only to show off to my friends, but it was only recently that I started delving deeper into Ghalib’s poetry and understanding its meaning. The more I delved into it, the more I found that Ghalib was not just a poet but he was a thought in himself."
— By Adnaan Rizvi
Tauseef Akhtar and Reeti (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)
Rehan Khan and Tabassum Fatima (R) Ritu Arora & Meetu Chawla (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)
Saumitra Pandey (R) Vivek and Mayank (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)
Vasudha (R) Jagmohan and Parshotam Arora (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)
Abhishek Bali (R) Amit Malhotra (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)
Neha and Abhijit (R) Iram (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)