Khazana, Ghazal festival, pays tribute to musical legends and supports cancer and thalassemia treatment
MUMBAI: The two-day (July 18-19) Khazana, a festival of ghazals, a medley of mellifluous music and soulful shairi (poetry) at a five-star hotel in the city, will pay tribute to tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain and legendary playback singer Mohammed Rafi as part of the centenary celebrations of the iconic singer.
It is a blending of poetry, melody, and purpose.
Being held in the middle of the monsoon, the event is expected to embody 'monsoon ragas' as singers, both veterans and new talents selected from a talent hunt, mesmerise the ghazal lovers. Carrying the legacy of ghazal maestro Pankaj Udhas, the 24th year of the festival, like the previous ones, is for the noble cause of supporting the Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA) and Parents Association Thalassemic Unit Trust (PATUT).
'This is one festival ghazal connoisseurs eagerly wait for. We have people tell us that they did not miss a single edition of the festival in the last 24 years. Speaking of myself, I come more to listen than to sing,' said Ghazal-Bhajan Maestro Anup Jalota, who, along with Udhas and Talat Aziz, originally planned Khazana. Jalota added that the festival is wedded to a good cause as 'treatment of thalassemia and cancer is very expensive, and all proceeds go to the treatment of the patients while no artiste charges anything.
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Apart from Jalota and Aziz, the festival will also feature Rekha Bhardwaj, Sudeep Banerji, Osman Mir, Amir Mir, Pandit Ajay Pohankar, Ajit Pohankar, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Pratibha Singh Baghel, Barnali Chattopadhyay, Kalpana Gandharv, and Himaanshu Sharma. The festival is so popular that ghazal lovers from across the country and even from abroad fly in only to attend the two-day event.
'Khazana carries the echo of my late father Shree Pankaj Udhas even if he is not physically present. It will always remain a beautiful gift he gave to the world,' said Nayab Udhas, Udhas's daughter, the force behind the show.
One out of eight carriers of thalassemia live in India, and annually 10,000 children with thalassemia major are born in India. India ranks third globally in new cancer cases, with over 16 lakh diagnosed each year.
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