Urdu heritage to be celebrated in Red Fort

Beginning 20 September, Delhi government’s Department of Art, Culture and Languages in partnership with the Urdu Academy is set to celebrate ‘Viraasat’, the Urdu Heritage Festival at the Red Fort grounds. 

The five-day festival will feature an all India ‘Mushaira’ that will bring together some of the most popular Urdu poets of the country and evenings full of melodious ghazals by singers like  Bhupinder, Mitali, Zila Khan, Aslam Sabri and Anita Singhvi. 

Cultural events, food delights, book exhibition, calligraphic displays, sufiana kalams and ghazal renditions have been lined up. 

A play on the life and times of Urdu poet Ghalib will see renowned actor Tom Alter essaying the star role. 

Chaar Bait the dying form of Urdu poetry will also be presented in its traditional form. 

‘Urdu is representative of Delhi as much as is the Red Fort. It is this inviolable link that we desire to highlight through this festival that will resonate from the by-lanes of Chandni Chowk to the rest of the city,’ said Anis Azmi, secretary, Urdu Academy, Delhi. 

On the last day of the festival a special tribute to Malka-e-Ghazal Begum Akhtar, in the form of Daastangoi by singer Vidya Shah and narrator Danish Hussain, has been scheduled.