Leading Urdu poets on stage in India

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New Delhi, 8 May 2012: A series of live stage programmes on India’s leading Urdu poets such as Sahir Ludhianvi and Firaq Gorakhpuri will be presented in the major cities of India, announced Hamkalaam.

"Hamkalaam is launching its series with a programme on the 20th century lyricist and poet Sahir Ludhianvi this Friday on 11 May 2012, in association with Marshal of the Air Force and Mrs Arjan Singh Trust,” said Pervaiz Alam, former BBC Broadcaster and Humkalaam’s Artistic Director, who will also be directing the series.

“Renowned poet, Rajya Sabha Member and a close associate of Sahir, Javed Akhtar will introduce Sahir in a programme of poetry, music and theatre,” Alam said.

Air Marshal (Retd.) T.S. Randhawa , the Vice-Chairman of the Marshal of the Air Force and Mrs Arjan Singh Trust said “Shaam-e-Sahir will be a great opportunity to project the aims of the Trust to a wider audience”. He added “The objective of the Trust is to give financial support to needy retired Air Force Veterans or their widows and orphans for whom no help is available from any other source”.

“In his time, Sahir Ludhianvi was hugely popular among India’s armed forces. In fact, the army had named an army post in his memory. We are very proud to have the Marshal of the Air Force, Arjan Singh, DFC hosting the Shaam-e-Sahir,” said Atul Bhardwaj from Beret Media, the company behind the Humkalaam events.

“Humkalaam’s main objective is to promote and revive poetry and music among cosmopolitan audiences through innovative and entertaining concert formats. A number of books on Sahir in Urdu, Hindi and English will be on sale at discounted prices in the foyer. To commemorate the event we are bringing out special T shirts with Sahir’s inspiring lines, “Aao ke koi khwab bunein”, particularly to reach out to youngsters. These will be on sale at the venue. After Delhi, the Sahir show will be taken on a national tour,” said Bhardwaj.

Humkalaam’s Artistic Director, Pervaiz Alam adds “We have shortlisted other Urdu poets from the 1940s and 1950s such as Firaq Gorakhpuri, Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Asrarul Haque Majaz and Jan Nisar Akhtar for future programmes.  We believe that cosmopolitan audiences today would appreciate serious poetry if concert production is classy, and entertaining.”

To ensure that larger audiences can enjoy this exclusive evening, Humkalaam has tied up with State Broadcaster Doordarshan as its Media Partners which will subsequently telecast the Shaam-e-Sahir on its channel DD Bharati.

Additional: The first in the Humkalaam series is a programme, Shaam-e-Sahir on one of India’s leading lyricists and poets Sahir Ludhianvi on Friday, 11 May 2012, 6 pm, at the 700-seater IAF auditorium, Subroto Park, near Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi 110010, organised by the Marshal of the Air Force & Mrs. Arjan Singh Trust.

The programme on Sahir features homage to Sahir by renowned lyricist Javed Akhtar who was personally known to him. Sahir’s publisher Amarnath Varma will also share snippets of Sahir’s life. There will be recitation of Sahir’s poetry by Delhi’s top drama voices, Amrita Preetam’s monologue on Sahir by the versatile actress Mala Kumar, singing of Sahir’s filmi and non-filmi poetry by India’s leading ghazal singer Radhika Chopra and others. For the first time, two of Sahir’s most acclaimed poems ‘Parchhaiyyan’ and ‘Aao ke koi khwab bunein’ have been set to music and will be presented on stage for the first time. The Head of Dilli gharana of music, Ustad Iqbal Khan will himself conduct his Choir live on stage, as the Choir sings “Aao ke koi khwab bunein”.

www.humkalaam.com