Dilli Gharana gears up to end year with celebrations

The Dilli Gharana is poised for a two day extravaganza of music and storytelling showcasing its rich legacy and long association with Indian classical and semi-classical music that stretches back to the 13th century.
The two day event that begins here today is based on two concepts, the first day devoted to 'Khiraj-e-Aqidat', a tribute to Taan Samrat Ustad Naseer Ahmed Khan, the guru and legend of Dilli Gharana.
The gharana is noted for a repository of traditional compositions.
"The tribute will be paid by the present Khalifa of the Gharana Ustad Iqbal Ahmeed Khan along with other artists of the gharana such as sitar maestro Ustad Saeed Zafar Khan besides the sons of Ustad Naseer Ahmed Khan namely Tanveer Khan and Imran Khan," organisers said in a statement today.

Ustad Saeed Zafar Khan is set to be accompanied by his son Suhel Saeed on Sitar, Ustad Shakeel Ahmed Khan and his son Shahbaz Shakeel on Tabla.
Tanveer Ahmed Khan and Imran Khan on vocals, Babar Latif on Tabla and Zakir Dholpuri on harmonium.

Ustad Saeed Zafar Khan was born in a home where his cradle was literally surrounded by stalwarts of the Delhi gharana like the Ustad Chand Khan, Ustad Usman Khan, Ustad Hilal Ahmed Khan and Ustad Nasir Ahmed Khan (all Vocalists), Ustad Bundukhan (Sarangi Player), Zahoor Ahmed Khan (violinist) and Ustad Zafar Ahmed Khan (sitarist), the last being his father.

Naturally too, his style blends tantrakari (instrumental virtuosity) with flashes of Delhi Gharana Gayaki (Vocalism).
On December 29 a confluence of two entirely different art forms under the Wajood Repertory is scheduled.
"We at Dilli Gharana strongly stand for the rights of
woman and also with the fight and struggle that goes on in our country to make our women strong and empowered. Empowerment would be the central theme of both the performances of the evening. These performances are not only about a woman's struggle to find her identity; they are also a celebration of womanhood," organisers said.
Hazrat Ameer Khusro, the founder of the Dilli Gharana was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent, a Sufi mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. Rudaad-e-Shireen is the tale of a woman called Shireen.

The driving force behind is the story which puts across the plight, struggle, tribulations and ultimately triumph of the protagonist in overcoming all the obstacles which comes in her way towards attaining her own identity.
The theme touches pertinent issues like child marriage, centrality of marriage in the life of a women, her struggles in a patriarchal society, the social taboos which a women faces when she tries to carve out a niche of her own.
'Kahani Pandit ki......' Is a quirky tale about the many, more than often contradictory, shades of human nature. With a tenor that is humorous, the tale raises several pertinent questions about the standing of a woman in society, greed and the pursuit of selfish interests.

Through its central characters and the nuances to of their devotion to the kuldevi- the village deity who protects, the tale moves into the realm of fantasies as it negotiates the contours of varied human emotions. This dastanic adaptation of a Rajasthani story of Vijaydan Detha has been scripted by Nadeem Shah.