Jashn-e-Rekhta to celebrate wealth of Urdu language

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 25

A festival--Jashn-e-Rekhta--celebrating Urdu is gearing up for its second edition in February with a lineup of eminent authors, poets, artists, litterateurs and singers.

Over 75 known personalities of the Urdu language are likely to participate in the festival. They are from India, Pakistan and the US. The venue is the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi.

The festival is being organized by the Rekhta Foundation. 

Gopi Chand Narang, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Iftikhar Arif, Zehra Nigah, Javed Akhtar, Jeelani Bano, Mahesh Bhatt, Shabana Azmi, Tom Alter, Sabri Brothers, Tina Sani, Ashok Vajpeyi, Namvar Singh are a few names in the lineup.

The festival aims to showcase the richness of Urdu through various forms like Mushaira, Qawwali, Dastangoi, Ghazals besides numerous film screenings, dances, plays, etc.

The Sabri Brothers from Rajasthan, famous for their Qawwali, are set to open the festival on February 12 with their performance.

A special highlight will be the birth centenary celebrations of legendary Urdu writers Ismat Chugtai and Rajinder Singh Bedi, known as the pillars of Urdu fiction.

The event has also planned a celebration for the birth centenary of Akhtar-ul-Iman, famed for his modern Urdu Nazms.

A special focus is a children's corner that will have storytelling, dastangoi, audio installations, fun drawing and other interesting activities aimed at reviving Urdu literature among children.