Report: The Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival 2024

Festival events took place at different venues in Safed Baradari and Salempur House, which are both a part of the Qaisarbagh palace complex built by Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh before it was annexed by the British. A great poet, playwright and patron of the arts, Wajid Ali’s name echoed throughout the five days of the festival, and especially during a fascinating conversation entitled Ishqnama between visual artist Saumyadeep Roy and historian Roshan Taqui, who discussed his contested legacy.

No festival that aims to highlight the city of Lucknow, especially one whose theme is aashiqui and ishq, can be complete without sher-o-shayari and mushairas. On the first night, Askari Naqvi highlighted the brilliance of Meer Taqi Meer through a musical composition of his verses. This was followed by Dipa Bagai and Danish Iqbal discussing some of Lucknow’s stalwart shayars – Minai, Mohani and Majaz, to name a few – and declaiming their shers interlaced with Kathak performances by Neelakshi Rai set to the musical renditions of ghazals written by these poets.

The next day took it a level further as Tashi, a trained musician and RJ, held sway over the audience with modern riffs on semi-classical music, taking breaks to recite ghazals. In the evening, two teams of women – comprising both young enthusiasts and esteemed aapas – tussled for an hour of bait bazi, similar to antakshari but with shers. The level of erudition displayed was astonishing; it was clear they could have gone on for hours more. A mushaira followed where a roster of eminent shayars – Priyamvada Singh, Abhishek Shuka, Manish Shukla, Shariq Kaifi, Iqbal Asshar, and Farhat Ehsas – took the stage one after another to the daads of an intensely engaged audience. Abhishek Shukla and Saurabh Srivastava then discussed the poet Naresh Saxena and ishq in Hindustani poetry.

On day three, a big crowd turned up for the seher (dawn) concert at 5:30 AM by acclaimed Hindustani classical vocalist Manjusha Patil. She elegantly sang Raag Ramkali, Raag Jaunpuri, and a bhajan, ending with Hamri Atariya Pe. Askari Naqvi said that at one point it seemed like she was pulling the heavens down; indeed, rain drops had softly fallen in the last few minutes. In the afternoon, attendees impatiently queued up for the Awadhi Home Cooked Food Festival. The hot ticket menu items, lal mirch qeema and yakhni pulao, were sold out within half an hour.

Soon, however, those few intermittent drops of the morning returned as torrential rain and people ran for cover with their plates of food. Even as many took shelter under the overhang in front of Salempur House, food coupons continued to be sold and people braved the rain to get their own plates. Though the evening’s events were delayed and had to be shifted to more sheltered venues, nothing could dampen the Sanatkada spirit and both organisers and attendees rose to the occasion.

When Avatari Devi walked in, two hours late in another venue, the room was bursting with people. Poignant and affecting, her show merged drag and theatre to explore queerness and gender identity.

Since there was no salvaging the main stage, the enclosed Crafts Bazaar came to the rescue. A makeshift platform on the floor of the passageway and chairs before it. Late hours of night, the smell of rain still strong in the air. This was the scene as Prahlad Singh Tipaniya and his troupe performed Kabir bhajans. While none of us expected it to happen this way, it was strangely calming and soothing, magical even.

A room on the first floor of Salempur House was reserved for literary events, book launches, and film screenings. This was the venue for the Lucknow Lectern lecture dedicated to the memory of Saleem Kidwai, which was given by Parmesh Shahani, who mused about the possibility of other, more equitable worlds that could be manifested into being. Mehr Afshan Farooqi later lectured on Ghalib’s Ishqiya poetry. Sabiha Anwar, Fatima Rizvi and Ayesha Siddiqui discussed the “jalwa” of ishq, aashiqui and Urdu adab. Giti Dutt explored itr and the evolution of Indian perfumery. The films shown here were also great. Sanatkada had itself made five short films out of the interviews they conducted while researching the theme of this edition, ‘Aashiqana Lucknow’, which looked at the many forms of love. The other films were shown in collaboration with Awadh Queer Pride (My Mother’s Girlfriend) and Kriti Film Club (The Miniaturist of Junagadh and Champaran Mutton). The festival also sufficiently highlighted the traditional oral forms of Urdu storytelling. Mohabbat Na Hoti To Kuch Bhi Na Hota, a Qissagoi by Mehmood Abdi was performed at the Addebazi Stage of Salempur House on February 2 and Dastan Kaifi-Shaukat Ki, the love story of Kaifi Azmi and Shaukat Kaifi, was brought vividly to life on the main stage at Safed Baradari by the seasoned Himanshu Bajpai with Pragya Sharma.

A festival is more than its events. MSLF featured interesting installations and exhibitions. One exhibition, Ishq Ke Rang Hazaar, stood out with Ayan Bose shining a light on queer love with Lucknow in the background in stunning photos. MSLF is more than its venues and also included many car tours and food walks that allowed attendees to fully experience the city.

MSLF initially began as just a crafts festival to highlight the handicraft and handloom artistry of the region. It is therefore only right that this report end with a look at the craft component of the event. Within the halls of Safed Baradari, there was a treasure trove of items on sale from different corners of the country and even beyond (Afghanistan and Uzbekistan had stalls). From clothing and accessories to decor and consumables, it was like a traditional Indian mela in all its vibrancy.

Well curated with every aspect fitting perfectly into the larger themes, the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival, saturated with Lakhnawi warmth and unbounded enthusiasm, was a resounding success.

Areeb Ahmad is an Editor-at-Large at Asymptote. He writes about books, literature, and literary cultures. He is @bankrupt_bookworm on Instagram and @Broke_Bookworm on Twitter/X.

Though I’ve spent seven years of my life in the City of Nawabs and occasionally claim to belong to it, the 15th Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival (MSLF), held from February 2 to 6 , 2024, opened me up to a range of new experiences. With events that presented the sociocultural, literary, and historical aspects of Lucknow, MSLF is an ode to the much-vaunted Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb of northern India that’s also a celebration of the syncretic culture of the Awadh region.

Festival events took place at different venues in Safed Baradari and Salempur House, which are both a part of the Qaisarbagh palace complex built by Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh before it was annexed by the British. A great poet, playwright and patron of the arts, Wajid Ali’s name echoed throughout the five days of the festival, and especially during a fascinating conversation entitled Ishqnama between visual artist Saumyadeep Roy and historian Roshan Taqui, who discussed his contested legacy.

No festival that aims to highlight the city of Lucknow, especially one whose theme is aashiqui and ishq, can be complete without sher-o-shayari and mushairas. On the first night, Askari Naqvi highlighted the brilliance of Meer Taqi Meer through a musical composition of his verses. This was followed by Dipa Bagai and Danish Iqbal discussing some of Lucknow’s stalwart shayars – Minai, Mohani and Majaz, to name a few – and declaiming their shers interlaced with Kathak performances by Neelakshi Rai set to the musical renditions of ghazals written by these poets.

The next day took it a level further as Tashi, a trained musician and RJ, held sway over the audience with modern riffs on semi-classical music, taking breaks to recite ghazals. In the evening, two teams of women – comprising both young enthusiasts and esteemed aapas – tussled for an hour of bait bazi, similar to antakshari but with shers. The level of erudition displayed was astonishing; it was clear they could have gone on for hours more. A mushaira followed where a roster of eminent shayars – Priyamvada Singh, Abhishek Shuka, Manish Shukla, Shariq Kaifi, Iqbal Asshar, and Farhat Ehsas – took the stage one after another to the daads of an intensely engaged audience. Abhishek Shukla and Saurabh Srivastava then discussed the poet Naresh Saxena and ishq in Hindustani poetry.

On day three, a big crowd turned up for the seher (dawn) concert at 5:30 AM by acclaimed Hindustani classical vocalist Manjusha Patil. She elegantly sang Raag Ramkali, Raag Jaunpuri, and a bhajan, ending with Hamri Atariya Pe. Askari Naqvi said that at one point it seemed like she was pulling the heavens down; indeed, rain drops had softly fallen in the last few minutes. In the afternoon, attendees impatiently queued up for the Awadhi Home Cooked Food Festival. The hot ticket menu items, lal mirch qeema and yakhni pulao, were sold out within half an hour.

Soon, however, those few intermittent drops of the morning returned as torrential rain and people ran for cover with their plates of food. Even as many took shelter under the overhang in front of Salempur House, food coupons continued to be sold and people braved the rain to get their own plates. Though the evening’s events were delayed and had to be shifted to more sheltered venues, nothing could dampen the Sanatkada spirit and both organisers and attendees rose to the occasion.

When Avatari Devi walked in, two hours late in another venue, the room was bursting with people. Poignant and affecting, her show merged drag and theatre to explore queerness and gender identity.

Since there was no salvaging the main stage, the enclosed Crafts Bazaar came to the rescue. A makeshift platform on the floor of the passageway and chairs before it. Late hours of night, the smell of rain still strong in the air. This was the scene as Prahlad Singh Tipaniya and his troupe performed Kabir bhajans. While none of us expected it to happen this way, it was strangely calming and soothing, magical even.

A room on the first floor of Salempur House was reserved for literary events, book launches, and film screenings. This was the venue for the Lucknow Lectern lecture dedicated to the memory of Saleem Kidwai, which was given by Parmesh Shahani, who mused about the possibility of other, more equitable worlds that could be manifested into being. Mehr Afshan Farooqi later lectured on Ghalib’s Ishqiya poetry. Sabiha Anwar, Fatima Rizvi and Ayesha Siddiqui discussed the “jalwa” of ishq, aashiqui and Urdu adab. Giti Dutt explored itr and the evolution of Indian perfumery. The films shown here were also great. Sanatkada had itself made five short films out of the interviews they conducted while researching the theme of this edition, ‘Aashiqana Lucknow’, which looked at the many forms of love. The other films were shown in collaboration with Awadh Queer Pride (My Mother’s Girlfriend) and Kriti Film Club (The Miniaturist of Junagadh and Champaran Mutton). The festival also sufficiently highlighted the traditional oral forms of Urdu storytelling. Mohabbat Na Hoti To Kuch Bhi Na Hota, a Qissagoi by Mehmood Abdi was performed at the Addebazi Stage of Salempur House on February 2 and Dastan Kaifi-Shaukat Ki, the love story of Kaifi Azmi and Shaukat Kaifi, was brought vividly to life on the main stage at Safed Baradari by the seasoned Himanshu Bajpai with Pragya Sharma.

A festival is more than its events. MSLF featured interesting installations and exhibitions. One exhibition, Ishq Ke Rang Hazaar, stood out with Ayan Bose shining a light on queer love with Lucknow in the background in stunning photos. MSLF is more than its venues and also included many car tours and food walks that allowed attendees to fully experience the city.

MSLF initially began as just a crafts festival to highlight the handicraft and handloom artistry of the region. It is therefore only right that this report end with a look at the craft component of the event. Within the halls of Safed Baradari, there was a treasure trove of items on sale from different corners of the country and even beyond (Afghanistan and Uzbekistan had stalls). From clothing and accessories to decor and consumables, it was like a traditional Indian mela in all its vibrancy.

Well curated with every aspect fitting perfectly into the larger themes, the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival, saturated with Lakhnawi warmth and unbounded enthusiasm, was a resounding success.

Areeb Ahmad is an Editor-at-Large at Asymptote. He writes about books, literature, and literary cultures. He is @bankrupt_bookworm on Instagram and @Broke_Bookworm on Twitter/X.