Insane Drums

By Shridevi Keshavan - DNA -Mumbai, India
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The two-day winter festival at NCPA starting next Saturday will blend theatre, literature and music together

Mumbai: There is something ‘insane’ about their thumping drumbeats.

Their beats touch a chord in your heart as these drummers from Manipur will cull out a visually stimulating act to go with their beats.

The Manipuri dancers will be a part if the winter festival in Mumbai that brings together theatre, music, literature, all rolled into one. The event is supported by DNA.

The festival includes some big names such as Zakir Hussain, Taufiq Qureshi, Niladri Kumar, Girish Karnad and more. Spread over two days, ‘Weekend Festival’ to be hosted at NCPA kick starts with international short films on Sufism on Saturday and ends with a musical journey of saint poets.

“Our performance will start with the Manipuri drummers putting up an act, followed by Zakir Hussain and Niladri Kumar performing together. Zakir will also give a solo show and later I’ll join them for the session. The beauty of it is that we have classical music roots and so it’s all spontaneous. Plus the Manipuri drummers are worth watching out for,” says percussionist Taufiq Qureshi.

Closely on the heels of the short films, there will be a dance theatre piece, ‘Fana: Ranjha Revisited’, a Navtej Singh Johar’s production.

“It will merge two narratives from North and South India. Later in this day, in Chauraha, there will be engrossing open discussion on work-in-progress”, says Dr Vijay Mehta, of NCPA.

“This will be an open forum where playwrights and artistes will, rather than the end, talk about the process of haw they arrived at that point,” she adds.

According to Zakir Hussain who has travelled all around the world and played at various festivals, being a part of something like this in the city is delightful.

“During my concert tours across the world, I have had occasion to witness and festivals with unusual designed concepts, and which take place in off-beat venues. The concept of a festival that stretches through the day from morning to night over the course of one weekend is an idea that was long overdue,” he smiles.

[Picture: Manipuri Drummers. Photo: Nimbu - Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/nimbupani/62455360/].