Gurgaon gears up for a three-day cultural extravaganza for Holi
A cultural festival in Gurgaon, featuring folk dance, music and theatrical performances, will bring together artists from across the country.
How about celebrating Holi this year, with cultural colours of music and drama? The fifth edition of Gurgaon Utsav associated with I am Gurgaon, is being organised by the Arts and Literature Foundation , Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon and in collaboration with the Department of Cultural Affairs, Haryana, will be held at the Aravali Biodiversity Park, Gurgaon. The festival will bring together an array of folk dance, music and theatrical performances to regale the audience.
The festival will kick-start with an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Khwaab Sa, which is directed by Atul Kumar. The play amalgamates contemporary dance, classical Hindustani music and theatre to present an absolute entertaining performance. It will see a fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, argue in pukka raag; lovers expressing their angst through contemporary dance, and a theatre troupe of village bumpkins talking gibberish.
On the narrative, Kumar says, “It’s being staged in Gurgaon for the first time; we are very excited to bring it here. It’s special, since it’s happening in the wilderness. We’re hoping the environment would lend itself to the show. As I was reading the play, there is a section on lovers, where they are running after each other in forest and due to mistaken identities, they end up falling in love with the wrong person. And magic is woven onto them by fairies. I thought the lovers sequence would be best presented through contemporary dance. Our version depicts the three worlds within this play in three different forms. The lovers do not talk at all, and explore their journeys through contemporary dance, movements and gestures. The actors talk gibberish — resembling Hindi — while the fairies communicate through songs.”
While Hindustani classical singer, Dhruv Sangari, will lure the audience with his soulful renditions in Sufi music along with his troupe Rooh, folk singer Malini Awasthi from Lucknow will connect you to the roots with songs such as Holi Khele Raghubira, Sunder Susheel.“Contrary to what people say about Gurgaon, I’ve always found the people to be warm and wonderful. Folk music has a universal language and the mood will be high as we’ll be playing with colours the next day. I’m really looking forward to soak people in the folk colours through my performance. My aim is to ensure that the audience relates to my music,” says Awasthi.
