A Sufi and Kathak night to remember

At the recently held fifth annual Wajid Ali Shah festival, Lucknowites got a treat of some soulful Sufi and Kathak performances. Held at

Dilkusha Palace

, the festival was organised by Rumi Foundation, Lucknow Chapter and was presented by UP Tourism and government of Uttar Pradesh. The festival aimed at promoting the composite culture of Awadh and spreading the message of peace in the society. The theme of the festival this year was Yamuna-Dariya Prem Ka, which was a Kathak ballet conceived and directed by filmmaker Muzaffar Ali.
The art and culture lovers of the city reached well before time so that they do not miss any part of the show. The chief guest for the evening was Dr Dinesh Sharma, deputy CM of UP while

Rita Bahuguna Joshi

, minister for tourism, UP, was the guest of honour. “It gives me immense pleasure to be a part of this festival as I am just mesmerised by the whole concept and the set-up. This place seems to take me back into the 19th century,” said Rita. The event started off with lighting the lamp by the chief guest, guest of honour and Muzaffar Ali. Also, Kumar Keshav, MD Lucknow Metro was felicitated at the event with the Rumi Foundation award for his contribution in the development of the Lucknow Metro.
The event kick-started with a Kathak ballet choreographed by

Astha Dixit

, scripted by Deepa Gupta with a voiceover by Barnali Chattopadhyay, Archana Shah and Tritha Sinha. Backed by a beautiful narration of the river Yamuna, the ballet took the audience on a mystic journey of the history of the river. Dancers Zulfaqaar Umair, Deepak Gangani, Mayukh Bhattacharya, Richa Joshi, Pallavi Basu, Sanskriti Vashishtha and many more, spread magic on the stage with their depiction of the theme and took the classical dance and music lovers in a different world. Talking about the concept Muzaffar Ali said, “This festival is one such way where we try to connect with the hearts of all the art lovers.

Yamuna-Ek Dariya Prem Ka

is the reflection of the amalgamation of the Yamuna with Khusrau who has sought Krishna from the rivers’ timeless position.”
The dance ballet was followed by a qawwali performance by

Smita Bellur

, who along with her troupe, presented soulful nazms and ghazals. Smita, who came all the way from Bengaluru, sang some of the famous ghazals and nazms of Amir Khusrau. Smita was accompanied by Subhash Sharma on tabla, Anshu on dholak, Ilyaz on the harmonium and

Kamal Sabri

on the sarangi.
— By Prachi Arya

Sufi and Kathak performance was held at Dilkusha Palace at the fifth annual Wajid Ali Shah festival (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Muzaffar Ali (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Sahil and

Meera Ali

(BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Aradhna Shukla, Awanish Awasthi and Iqbal Kidwai (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Jailakshmi Sharma, Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Leena Johri (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

MA Khan, Madhuri Halwasiya and Maj Gen Parvesh Puri (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Malini, Ananya Awasthi and Meera Ali (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Mumtaz Ahmad, Naseema Aziz and Parveen Talha (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Nawab Masood Abdullah, Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullah and Noor Khan (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Roma Agarwal, Runa and Smita (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Seema Saxena and Kumar Keshav (R) Shalini and Nilima (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Usha and Atul Gupta (R) Dr Dinesh Sharma (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)

Sadhna and Praveer Kumar (R) Vandana Sehgal (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)