The first day of Kanpur Literature Festival started with Zikr Us Parivash Ka, a film on Begum Akhtar. In this film, film actor, script writer Atul Tiwari interacted with singer film director Nirmal Chander. He told in detail about how the idea of making this film came to his mind and its making process.
Nirmal Chander ji is a well-known name in filmmaking, he has received many awards for his films, his films have reached Oscars. He said that he started his film journey as a film editor and reached the director. He talked about his film Koma Siddhi which is about a tribe that came to India from Africa.
The Kanpur Literature Festival was inaugurated after the film. In the inauguration, Festival Director Anjali Tiwari thanked the people of the city for making the festival a success with the cooperation of all the people. Instead of walking on his knees, he is now standing on his feet. Chiranjeev Sinha, Nirmal Chander, Dr. Rahul Goyal, Dr. Anjali Tiwari, Dar Alok Bajpai, Ashok Lal, Dr. Sanjay Garg, Sarabjit Singh Behl. Dr. Rahul Goyal said that when he came to Kanpur two years ago, he had a scene like the Dabangg movie in his mind, so he never thought that Litfest could also be held here.
Two books of Kautilya Prakashan were released in the release session. In which poet Ashok Lal’s book ‘Roshnai’ and another poet Akshay Kumar Singh Chauhan ‘Aks’ book ‘Ah! Was. The book was released by Chiranjeev Sinha, Dr. Anil Trivedi, Jahangir Sahab, Raju Arora. Akshay Singh tied the knot with his poems.
After the inauguration, there was a session called Zara yaad unke bhi kar lo. In this, IPS officer Chiranjeev Sinha talked to Mohit Gupta. In this session those soldiers of freedom who have been forgotten by the people were remembered. The tales and stories of sacrifice of those unknown soldiers took the people to that period before 1947 when all the people of the country were involved in this fight in one way or the other. The story of Ajijan Bai, Maina Devi is prominent in this.
Another session was based on poetry, in this session poet Ashok Lal recited some poems from his book Roshnai, this session was moderated by poetess Bhavna Mishra of Kanpur. The specialty of poet Ashok Lal, who came from Delhi, was to recite poems in a special style, Khamsa. Under Khamsa, the poet adds his lines with the face of a famous poet. Ashok ji wrote the first sher at the age of eight and belongs to a literary family. The audience thoroughly enjoyed Ashok ji’s Khamas, Nazms, Geet and Ashar. At the end of this session, Bhavna Mishra recited a powerful sher of Ashok ji. Sher hai “Apna weapon ab adab hoga / ab ho gaya toh kab hoga.
Writer Anita Mishra spoke to famous litterateur Dr. Asgar Wajahat in the session ‘Adab Ke Mahabali’ at the Kanpur Literature Festival. This session was presented in a departure from tradition.
At the beginning of the session, Anita Mishra first read the summary of the play Mahabali and left it after bringing it to the climax. After that actors Atul Tiwari and Surya Mohan presented the end of Mahabali play on the stage. After this, writer Asghar Wajahat was called on the stage and Anita Mishra, the presenter of the session, explained the Mahabali drama in detail with him.
Also talked in detail about his creations, travels, films and his paintings. Dr. Asghar Wajahat said that his play Godse Filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi has produced the film on Gandhi.com which will release in January. On the question of the status of writers in India and abroad, he told that during his visits to Europe, he saw that the people there love their writers very much, there all the roads and streets are named after the writers. Dr. Wajahat said in response to a question that literature is very important for life. Many times literature gives inspiration to people who are disappointed with life. He also narrated an incident when a man had given up the idea of committing suicide after hearing one of Ghalib’s shers. He said that a woman cried so much after seeing the staging of his play Jis Lahore Nahi Dekhya that her eye disease got cured. Talking about the play Mahabali, Dr. Asgar Wajahat said that in the play, an attempt has been made to show that Mahabali is not a king but a writer of literature. Tulsidas never went to Akbar’s court even after a lot of harassment by the Pandits of Kashi. Many people advised him to go to Sikri, you will be safe, but Tulsidas does not agree. That’s why in this drama, Mahabali is not Akbar but Tulsidas.
In this session, the people present there also asked many questions to Dr. Asghar Wajahat. The first day’s session ended with Qawwali. It was presented by Kutbi Brothers who came from Delhi. The Kutbi Brothers who sing Sufi Qawwali are from Bakhtiyar Kaki’s silsilah. His family has been singing Qawwali for about six hundred years. His Qawwali created such a romantic and Sufiana atmosphere that people swooned.
The program started with the release of Swati Srivastava’s book Magnetic Power of Your Thoughts. The book was released by famous Hindi litterateur Dr. Asghar Wazahat, writer Priyamvad, writer Anita Mishra, Dr. Sanjay Garg, Khan Farooq.
The author of this book, Swati Srivastava, has done engineering from Delhi IIT. After that, he worked in a multinational company. He said that when the idea of writing this book came to his mind when he mailed the manuscript of this book to America’s Hay House, he did not expect that such a big publication would accept his proposal. Hay House published her book from here, so it was like a dream come true for Swati.
Session 1: Guess and…
The first session of the second day was Andaze Bayan Aur. In this session, three poets presented poems of three different moods. The poets included in this were Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, Head of the Department of Hindi at VSSD College in Kanpur, Dr. Sanjay Garg, a poet in administrative service, came from Delhi, Architect poet Sarabjit Singh Behl came from Amritsar.
Pankaj Chaturvedi recited a free calling poem which was quite contemporary. This poem describing today’s situation was liked by the listeners very much…calling is free but the condition of conversation is not there. Pankaj Chaturvedi’s poem Railway Platform was very poignant which was about the condition of the Corona period. The poem Kaju ki Roti was a satire on politics.
Dr. Sanjay Garg from Delhi also writes poetry under the name of Sagar Akbarabadi. He is also associated with numismatics. He told the lion… It is good that you were angry with me for many days / Many of my work that was postponed has been completed, I am very lonely and someone comes and takes care of me / May Allah kill my loved ones. I thought it was my reflection / but when the mirror broke you came out in it all the lions but they got a lot of appreciation from the audience.
Poet Sarabjot Singh’s poem is a poem breaking all boundaries. He said that he mostly writes in Punjabi. Said and unsaid both are important in poetry. Everyone is hoping that God will be found / If he is separated from you, then he will be found, I am prostrated everywhere / But at least some God can be found from somewhere, it was about lakhs in our accounts sir / As much as was promised At least half got it, people clapped a lot on this nazm of his. On the request of the audience, he recited his famous Nazm Gujranwala.
Pankaj Chaturvedi recited the first white child poem on the request of poet Yatindra Mishra and Kamino ka kya hai poem.
The program was very well coordinated by poetess Bhavna Mishra, who sang a beautiful sher from Mir Taki Mir, which goes like this – “Ab to jaate hain butakde se Mir, phir milenge agar khuda laya.”
Second Session: Lata Sur Gatha……The second session of the day was Lata Sur Gatha…in which well-known writer Yatindra Mishra shared all the memories related to the life of Lata Mangeshkar, the owner of Suron. He had heard from Lata Mangeshkar while talking to her while writing his book Lata Sur Gatha. He said that the controversies related to Lata ji’s life are absolutely futile, people have spread rumors just like that. He told stories about Lata ji along with her songs. The program also ended with Lata’s song Hum Gavanwa Na Jaibe Bina Jhulni.
Water land sewage upheaval: -Sopan Joshi
It was a unique session in itself. Dr. Alok said that Sopan Joshi is currently working on “Mango”. Sopan Joshi said that political talk does not happen without conspiracy and since childhood I feel that the biggest conspiracy in our country is education. Sopan Joshi narrated some anecdotes related to his father Prabhash Joshi and told how he never put the burden of his expectations on the children. Editing for 25 years. He said that journalists are taught to ask questions, no one tells what to do if a big, bitter truth comes to the fore. Quoting his book Jal Thal Mal, he shared many interesting experiences. Dr. Alok said that the purpose of this session is to remove the stigma that has been imposed on our society in the matter of cleanliness, which is the gift of the last few years. Sopan said that Gandhi is a kind of cover in today’s life, hiding behind which people do their exploits.
Fourth Session: Bhokal Amit Sial of Kanpur
In this session, well-known film and OTT series actor Amit Sial talks about his interesting journey from Kanpur to Bollywood. Amit did theater with Barry John for a few days after studying from Shilling House, Kanpur. After studying in Australia for a few days, he moved to Mumbai. He said that he misses Kanpur’s chaat and Kullahad’s tea. Actor Amit Sial has worked in many web series like Kathmandu Connection, Maharani, Jamtara, Mirzapur, His movies names – Titli, Aafat E Ishq, Kala, LSD
Amit Sial said that the biggest teacher of life is pain, happiness does not teach us anything. At the end of the session, Amit Sial answered the questions of the audience.
Season 5: Sangeet Ke Rang Vishal Bhardwaj with Rekha Bhardwaj
Film producer, director, music director Vishal Bhardwaj talks about his Bollywood experiences. He discussed and shared stories about his films Maqbool, Haider and Omkara based on Shakespeare’s plays. He said that today he has come to Kanpur after 38 years and he had first come to Green Park in 19 to play cricket. He said that he has spent many years in Meerut and has always been associated with UP. He studied in a Hindi medium school in Meerut. Vishal believes that if he was not from UP, he might not have been what he is today. Rekha Bhardwaj enthralled the audience by reciting songs like Sasural Ganda Phool, Namak Ishq Ka etc. He said that there was an atmosphere of music in his house located on Minto Road, Delhi from the beginning. Rekha ji explained in detail about her music education.
Season Six: Dastangoi
The story based on the life of Karna was narrated in a very interesting way by Oxford educated writer, historian Mahmood Farooqui. Dastan Goi Art was started by Mehmood Farooqi, now there are many people in this field but Mahmood Farooqi’s style is different. The audience took a lot of interest in the narration of Karna’s story. Mehmood Farooqui said that the story of Karna’s life inspires him a lot, so he chose this story for the story.
