Music fraternity came together to pay tribute to Pankaj Udhas at ‘Khazana - a Festival of Ghazals’

For the first time in 23 years the two-day exclusive ghazal festival, Khazana was held without the key founding member Pankaj Udhas. His daughters Nayaab Udhas and Reva Udhas along with some of the other members toiled for four months to put it all together. What was touching was that the music fraternity got together, and 26-27 July saw a huge starry turnout.

Hariharan

Rekha and Vishal Bhardwaj

Rekha Bhardwaj, Sudeep Banerji, Anup Jalota and Talat Aziz

Javed Ali

Eminent ghazal singers like Anup Jalota, Talat Aziz, Hariharan, Javed Ali, Papon, Kavita Seth, Rekha Bhardwaj, Vishal Bhardwaj, Sudeep Banerji, Runaa Rizvi, Prithvi Gandharv, Shivani Vaswani, Sraboni Chaudhuri, Meenal Jain, Pooja Gaitonde Priyanka Barve, Ananya Wadkar (daughter of Suresh wadkar) were seen performing for the noble cause of raising funds for thalassaemic children and cancer patients at a hotel in South Mumbai.

Reva Udhas with her mother Farida Pankaj Udhas

Nayaab Udhas and Ojas Adhiya

This year ‘Khazana - a Festival of Ghazals’, was dedicated to the legendary ghazal maestro Padmashri Shri Pankaj Udhas, whose sad demise on 26 February 2024 was sudden and devastating. The music fraternity carried for his rich legacy of over two decades in his fond memory.

Suresh Wadkar with wife Padma and daughter Ananya Wadkar

Singer Anuradha Paudwal and daughter Kavita Paudwal

Ghazal singer Penaz Masani, Rakshanda Khan and Mitali Bhupinder Singh

Singer Anuradha Paudwal and daughter Kavita Paudwal, Suresh Wadkar with wife Padma, percussionist Sivamani with wife Runaa Rizvi and daughter Milana, ghazal singer Penaz Masani (who used to be a part of the festival during its earliest years), Mitali Singh, young tabla maestro Ojas Adhya, Rakshanda Khan (who has been hosting the event for decades), Salim Arif, Lubna Salim, YK Sapru and the daughters of Pankaj Udhas Nayaab and Reva were seen along with their mother Farida Pankaj Udhas were present at the event.

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