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Witness the folk poems of Baba Bulleh Shah come to life at this cultural event
Updated On: 31 January, 2024 06:41 AM IST | Mumbai | Shriram Iyengar
A unique kathak performance brings alive the folk poems of Baba Bulleh Shah and the Subcontinent’s multicultural spirituality
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Manjari Chaturvedi during a performance in Delhi in December 2023. Pics Courtesy/Monica Dawar
From Faiz Ahmed Faiz, down to Sahir and even, Ranbir Kapoor, a common thread of Punjabi folklore emerges. Like the pride of Rabindranath Tagore to a native Bengali, the poems and songs of the 17th century poet mystic, Baba Bulleh Shah, have been passed down through oral tradition across the plains of Punjab. These have slowly filtered down into pop culture through Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s qawwalis, Madhuri Dixit dancing to ‘Mera piya ghar aaya’, or Shah Rukh Khan’s iconic moment atop a train in Ooty singing ‘Chaiyya chaiyya’.
Manjari Chaturvedi knows this well. “We are talking about an evolution of 700 years of oral tradition here,” the danseuse from Lucknow Gharana tells us, referencing the Madhuri Dixit number. The performance O’ Bullayah! at The Royal Opera House on Saturday is Chaturvedi’s tribute to the Punjabi sufi saint, and part of her ongoing research, The 22 Khwaja Project. Since 2010, she has performed concerts in tribute to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, Chiragh-e-Dehli, Hazrat Bedam Warsi, and Shah Turab Ali Qalandar. “This is our fifth saint, and there is still a long way to go to 22,” she chuckles.
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