The Kala Ghoda Art Festival has always been on my priority list whenever it happens...but somehow, this time, I was not able to spend as much time over there as I would have normally done :-(. Yeah - no excuses!!!! But have been keeping pretty occupied. No - its not about work, but somehow my weekends have been even busier then the weekdays. I found myself wanting for some 'me' time. Have not been able to do a lot of things since the last few weeks and that has left me a bit restless. But, but, but....don't want to start a cribbing session here.
Went to the Kala Ghoda festival last sunday. Landed directly at Cross Maidan. That was a 'musical' evening. The performance by 'Band, Baaja, Bachhe' stole my heart :-). The kids belonged to the Salaam Bombay Foundation and gave an impressive performance. It was the first performance. There was not much of a crowd then. So lesser encouragement. Sometimes, I wonder, why such 'special' performances are slotted with the popular category of performance. Since its a 'not for profit' Art festival, these performances where it could actually make an impact to the lives of these children, should have been highlighted. But I guess - the organizers would have thought about that aspect.
The other "Star" performers of the evening were "The Other People", "Raaga Boys" and "Susheela Raman". I quite like the music the "The Other People" play but somehow I felt, there was an audience mismatch. They were really good... but the audience was I guess more towards the hindi - bollywood music types!!!
The Raaga Boys is a Pakistani Boy band and belonged to the 'Patiala' Gharana. Out of the 3 brothers who were the main lead, only one of them could sing properly. Felt there were too many people on the stage at the time of their performance. And well - they advertised their lineage a lot of famous uncles and cousins!!!!! And last but not the least, there was a performance by Susheela Raman. I think, I would have definitely liked it, provided I understood the language. She was singing in Tamil!!!! And she kept on singing in Tamil!!!....
Some Pictures I clicked....
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The Other People |
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An exhibit |
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Raaga Boys |
I would have loved to see more of Kala Ghoda, but paucity of time kept me away from it. It was by sheer coincidence that I met a fellow blogger Purvesh over there.
Kala Ghoda Art Festival has played an important role in what makes Bombay "tick". I thoroughly enjoy what all it offers to the Mumbaikars as well as the artists. I hope it continues forever and does not have to deal with the string pulling as a lot of other festivals go through!!!!