New life will be breathed into the majestic Amber Fort, a precious monument to Jaipur’s Rajput history, with the Heritage Evening to be organised by the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, in association with Rajasthan Tourism. Events have been planned to make the historical monument and Rajasthani culture available to the world in a more interactive manner with an aim to see how heritage and arts come together.
The majestic evening at Ganesh Pol, Amber Fort on January 26 that the audience will become witness to promises to be as iconic as the imperial backdrop itself.
The evening will witness a performance by Ben Okri an acclaimed poet, novelist, essayist and playwright in form of The Griot, Ben Okri. The Griot will be a special evening where the writer will unfold a new kind of live literary experience as he traverses through his life at the stunning Amber Fort in the tradition of bards and griots, ancient story-tellers and custodians of oral traditions. Okri’s celebrated work The Famished Road has been translated into 27 languages and won numerous international prizes, including the Man Booker. His most recent novel is The Freedom Artist.
A griot or jali is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition and is often seen as a leader due to his or her position as an advisor to royal personages. As a result of the former of these two functions, they are sometimes called a bard.
Apart from this the audience will get a chance to connect with the soulful music from the God’s own country when a ritualistic art form from Kerala—Theyyam—will be presented by Craft Stories Under the Mango Tree. People of some areas of Kerala consider Theyyam as channels or mediums of a God or Goddess and they seek blessings from this Theyyam.
Traditionally Theyyam is a ceremonial dance from Kerala, depicting famous folk, tribal and mythological stories with music, dance and mime. A chorus of traditional musical instruments usually accompanies this stately dance. At Amber Fort, a short Theyyam performance by Folkland, International Centre for Folklore & Culture, Kerala, will enthrall the audience.
Grammy Award winning legendary percussionist Vidwan Vikku Vinayakram along with the support and finesse of his exceptionally talented sons—Selvaganesh and Umashankar and grandson Swaminathan—represent the only family in India that has been paying rich tributes to music for three generations. 3G is a celebration of Indian classical music with deep roots in Indian culture in which three generations of a gifted family perform together as a testimony to their unmatched musical dedication.
At this majestic evening at Amber Fort, ‘3G’ will enthrall audiences with their superlative skills on the ghattam (Vikku Vinayakram and Umashankar), hand-drums (Selvaganesh), morsingh (A. Ganesh) and the kanjeera (Swaminathan). Mahesh Vinayakram will join them on vocals.
The evening will proceede with Sitar Ensemble by the sitar duo, Shakir Khan and Azeem Ahmed Alvi, are one of India’s most accomplished ensembles. Shakir, son and disciple of Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, and Alvi, a disciple of the sitar maestro, have come together to form this unique collaboration as the 8th generation representatives of the Etawah gharana. The two will be joined by Ustad Akram Khan and Hafeez Ahmed Khan on the tabla.
MY LIFE, MY VERSE
- On the majestic evening at Ganesh Pol, Amber Fort, on January 26, the audience will become witness to what promises to be as iconic as the imperial backdrop itself.
- Events have been planned to make the historical monument and Rajasthani culture available to the world in a more interactive manner with an aim to bringing heritage and arts together.
- The evening will witness a performance by Ben Okri an acclaimed poet, novelist, essayist and playwright in form of The Griot, Ben Okri.
- The audience gets a chance to connect with soulful music from God’s own country in the form of ritualistic art from Kerala—Theyyam