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Sanatkada Festival: A perfect mix of culture, food and tales
The Mahindra Sanatkada Festival in Lucknow offers a variety of cultural events, including dastaangoi, music, dance, and theatre, as well as literary sessions, shopping, and food. The festival showcases the sweetness and uniqueness of the Lucknowi zubaan (language) and highlights the art and craft of the region. Visitors can also enjoy a wide range of food options from popular food joints. The festival will culminate with the Awadhi Home Cooked Food Festival.
The ongoing Mahindra Sanatkada Festival has come up with a blend of cultural events during the five-day event that is underway at Safed Baradari, Kaiserbagh. From dastaangoi, music, dance to theatre there is a lot being offered to the visitors besides the literary sessions, shopping and food. We bring out the action from the opening day.
Dastango Mehmood Abdi, a lawyer by profession, says that sweetness in Lucknowi zubaan is a beautiful amalgamation of Hindi and Urdu and Awadhi dialect.
“Jo sweetness hai Lucknow ki zubaan mein wo Awadhi se ayi hai. The strength of our language is such that even in a crowd Lucknowites could be singled out when they speak,” says Abdi. He also talked about taqsali zubaan (as a coin minting unit was established in Chowk area) which diluted purity of language like nihari became nahari, taqt became thakat and so on.
Lucknowite Askari Naqvi presented three ghazals of Meer Taqi Meer. He was well-supported by Naveen Mishra, Mohd Rafi, Tushar Sahai, Harshwardhan Singh Negi, Aditya Pratap Singh, Aaditya and Abhieraj Shahi.
“Tried adding a new dimension to my strength of performance such as dastaangoi and sozkhwani. This is the first time I have performed with a band which plays mix of classical instruments like sitar, tabla and shehnai along with modern devices,” shares Askari.
The play Taking Threads,held at the Baradari by Swatantra Talim, team turned out to be a well-curated act where live display of threads, weaving, sharp script, strong narration and smart acts were elegantly weaved together to showcase the life of artisans. The play was inspired by real-life stories of women artisans of chikan-kaarigari .
“We have curated events that highlight art and craft in literal sense. Such meaningful presentations create awareness about our indigenous crafts,” says Sanatkada founder Madhvi Kuckreja.
Besides, Neelakshi Rai captivated the audience with her kathak performance on songs like Chupke Chupke Raat Din and Hamari Atariya Pe.
The attraction for visitors at the fest is not just the shopping and cultural arena. Options are available at the Baradari open area and at the Salempur House lawns. “We tried light options like chaat, piping hot pakori besides the home-cooked snacks at Naimatkhan stall. But the real action is at the lawns where kebabs and kulcha-nihari stalls are set up. The perfect ending was with Kashmiri chai with malai,” adds a visitor, Umesh Gupta.
Popular food joints like Raheem’s, Tundey Kababi, Tiwari Chaat and Ah So Yum have been placed at the venue. From dimsums, bao, sushi, Rajasthani food, home-cooked khichda and Awadhi food, options are aplenty.
The highlight of the Sunday afternoon will be the most awaited Awadhi Home Cooked Food Festival, that sees a big turnout of foodies.
