Sabri brothers leave the audience craving for more

SD Sharma

Chandigarh, August 27

Eminent poets of national acclaim and celebrated qawwali maestros Sabri brothers enthralled the audience at Tagore Theatre as they rejoiced the quintessential spirit of Urdu in a special literary panorama ‘Rang-e-Rekhta’ organised by the Rekhta Foundation, New Delhi, here today.

Chief guest Vijay Vardhan, Additional Chief Secretary, Culture, Haryana, Waseem Barelvi and Rekhta founder Sanjeev Shraf lighted the traditional lamp.

As many as eleven poets drawn from various states read out their verses on diverse themes of socio-political and economical upheavals and social awakening with nuanced analysis of certain aspects of human relationships in all their manifestations. The engrossing mushaira commenced with young poet Mahender Sani touching an inevitable climax with full-throated renditions by 92-year-old poet Gulzar Dehalvi.

Audience stood up to welcome star poet Waseem Barelvi, an MLC, who said on shift in loyalty ‘har saal naye patte badal dete hain tewar,

boorha hai magr paed purana nahin laagta’.

Other poets who impressed the audience included Farhat Ehsaas, Rajesh Reddy (Mumbai), Manish Shukla (Lucknow), Liaqat Jafri (Jammu), Nomaan Shauque (Delhi), Shams Tabreezi (Chandigarh), Mahender Kumar Sani (Chandigarh) and Shakeel Jamali (Delhi).

Nashir Naqvi (Patiala) conducted mushaira with admirable competence.

The Jaipur-based and world-renowned qawwals, Sabri brothers, took the mehfil to an ecstatic and spectacular level. They opened up with an invocatory ‘chhap tilak’, which brought alive the mysticism of Hazrat Amir Khusro.

They turned to romanticism with their hit number ‘husan jab meharbaan ho jaye...’ and on demand rendered their filmy qawwalis, including ‘der na ho jaye kahi der na ho jaye’, and more before concluding with the boisterous ‘dma dama mast qalander’. They left the audience craving for more.