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On the 10th of November 2015 we commenced the evening at Mehfil with the recitation of Urdu poetry as part of the Prithvi festival at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai.

We at Urduwallahs realize that our audience likes to immerse in the sound of this magical language, so we decided to pick up various poets from different periods of history and recite their works. We selected Ghalib and his contemporaries Momin, Daag and Bahadur Shah Zafar. From the 21st century we picked up Iqbal, Majrooh, Jan Nisar Akhtar and Faiz.

Javed Saab first introduced the audience to the poet. He explained the background and style of writing of each poet. This was followed by commendable recitations by performers such as Suhail Warsi, Saadiya Siddiqui and Neha Sharad who read one poem by each poet. After which we played an audio clip or a visual clip of the poet’s verses which have been rendered in the form of a song in films, music albums or television serials.

We had the pleasure of having with us Smita Bellur who enthralled the audience with her melodious voice. She sang two of Iqbals poems, which brought out an interesting dimension to Iqbal and his work.

With stalwart poets like the ones we had chosen, time just slipped through our fingers and at the end of a comprehensive evening we had to draw the curtains down with the promise to come back next month with an even more exciting topic.

People left the Mehfil with a small souvenir in the form of Saadat Hasan Manto’s bookmarks made by Urduwallahs.

A list of the some of the music played that evening is given below:

Ghalib:

  1. aah ko chahiye – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk-3ZBlPCqY
  2. bazeecha E Atfal – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIxsi7BmjgE
  3. woh Firaaq woh visaal kahan-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpKCDpL2_FM

 Momin:

woh jo hum mein tum mein qarar tha- (Begum Akhtar) -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzq1rpuFMig

Daag:

tumhare khat mein, naya ek –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peqeyLxiGUg

Bahadur Shah Zafar:

Lal kila film- lagta nahin dil mera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha3V_87LvR0