Gurugram: Utsav is back, promising joy & reflection

GURUGRAM: Whenever unreason has stalked the land, music has never failed to calm. It has been thus for centuries, and it will be so at the Gurugram Utsav, which returns for its spring date with the city.
To be held on the weekend before Holi, the Utsav this year promises both unbridled joy and, also, some reflection. The organisers have put together a line-up that will tug at every emotion. Expect a generous helping of folktronica (in which past and present unite like lovers), courtesy of Hari and Sukhmani, and plenty of life and soul from the ever-popular Hans Raj Hans.

There’s a treat in store on the final day, when the free spirit that is Parvathy Baul, who sings and dances without a care in the world, shares billing with the wonderfully versatile Mita Vashisht, in a role far removed from (though tangentially related to) the ones she has mastered in her career.

The Utsav opens with Hari Singh Jaaj and Sukhmani Malik, the duo from Punjab who have earned praise for their effortless blending of traditional Punjabi folk with electronica.

An admired live act, they will be performing new material, which makes their visit to Gurugram even more anticipated.

“The idea was to do old folk songs, because the new generation doesn’t hear them. And Hari wanted to go into a chill-out zone with it,” reveals Sukhmani, by way of an explanation of folktronica. “Bhangra is a very new thing. Traditional folk has never been hardcore – it is very easygoing, you never hear big dhols. The idea was to keep that vibe,” Hari adds.

The middle evening will be given over to Hans Raj Hans, a man who personifies all that is good about Punjab. Just like the men and women of this northern state, the music of Hans Raj Hans bursts with exuberance and energy, while there’s never a show in which he doesn’t indulge in ‘guftagoo’ with his audience.

His is music that drinks from many a river and stream (qawwali, folk, devotional, Indipop), yet stays rooted to, and inspired by, the message of the Sufis.

On the final day, Vashisht, one of our finest actresses, will, over the course of an hour, recite the poetry and celebrate the life of Lal Ded, the 14th-century mystic poet from Kashmir whose words are treasured to this day.

By declaiming in Kashmiri, Hindi and English, Vashisht will seek to remind us of the oft-forgotten syncretic civilization that Kashmir once represented, a paradise out of whose soil grew many faiths and a shared culture.

“It is an affirmation of everything that is worth affirming in the times we are having to deal with today,” she says. And bringing the Utsav to a close will be the dervish-like turns and transcendental melodies of Parvathy Baul, in whose vision the universe exists without any boundary.

The Gurugram Utsav, presented by the Arts and Literature Foundation in partnership with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, will be held on March 15, 16 and 17, in the amphitheatre at Aravali Biodiversity Park (7:00 pm).