The Manganiyar Seduction, a live music featuring Rajasthani folk and Sufi music, with over 40 musicians from the Manganiyar community of western India enthralled people of tri cities—Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad on Sunday night. It was organized as part of the unique festival which the city has not witnessed before. Kulture Karavan was an immersive experience, new to many people in the city. It was a festival of Art, Music, Culture and FLEA. The venue was Sattva Knowledge City, Madhapur.
Kulturel Karavan is one a kind of IP that offers a plethora of cultural elements. It was an event by Rawster and produced by Metalloid Productions
Though the day-long drizzling in the city played a spoilsport, quite a large number of people turned up to the event.
It was an amalgamation of curated experience and Kulture Karavan had something for everyone. A visually stunning act Roysten Abel’s Manganiyar Seduction was the highlight of the festival.
Conceived by the well known Indian director Roysten Abel, the theatrical presentation featured 40 musicians, in turbans and robes from Rajasthan. They either sat or kneeled in red-draped cubicles, stacked in four tiers and illuminated when their turn came to perform. The large numbers gathered to witness the experimental theatrical performance. But, for everybody’s bad luck, it couldn’t be witnessed till the end as the rain disturbed their act.
This Rajasthani musicians gave an astonishing audio-visual feast and performance. It was an extraordinary concept, brilliantly executed.
Prior to their performance Rishab Sharma, the last and the youngest disciple of Pt. Ravi Shankar performed. He is said to have given his sitar performance at the White House in the United States of America recently. I am a sitarist and music producer. I live in New York City, announced Rishab Sharma. He began his 40 minutes performance with Raag Tilak Kamod, which was the first raa guruji taught me, he said. It is a meditative alp. Close your eyes and enjoy it, he informed his 300 plus audience. He ended his performance with Chanukya. He was accompanied by Unmesh Banerjee on Tabla. Rishab Sharma, a true descendant of the esteemed Rikhi Ram family of luthiers announced that he is coming back to the city to perform again on 28th January at Saptaparni. And that will be a Sitar performance for mental health. Rishab learned from great maestros such as Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Ustad Rais Khan, Pt. Arun Bharatram and more. Rishab incorporates modern music elements into his classical training.
In between the above two stunning performances, Gaddam Padmaja Reddy, performed a dance that emulated the State of Telangana’s beautiful culture. She and her team of dancers performed Kakatiyam, the new art form she introduced. It is a two-part Kuchipudi classical visual dance form based on the history and themes of Ramappa Temple, sculpture and dance forms during the period of Kakatiya dynasty. She said the dance concept was based on her research on the Ramappa Temple, Thousand Pillar Temple, and Warangal in formatting the dance form. According to her, it is based on Nritta Ratnavali–a book written by Jayapa Senani, a military commander of the Kakatiyas, documenting the dance forms of the 13th century.
Metalloid in association with Harish Kumar Sejekan, Sattva Knowledge City - an art show by Masters of Indian Art and some renowned Indian artists was put up. Art from MF Husain, Tyeb Mehta, VS Gaitonde, FN Souza, Manjit Bawa, S.H Raza, Ram Kumar, T Vaikuntam, Akbar Padamsee, Bharat Thakur, Sujata Sah Sejekan were on display. The art exhibition had 25 art collections of various artists mostly by MF Hussain and VS Gaintonde. They were original and rare paintings of MF Hussain and VS Gaintonde. These were curated by Bangalore based Harish Kumar Sejekan collected from various collectors. The notable one among them was Krishna Leela Painting of MF Hussain, that was priced at rupees five crore, the costliest among all. On the whole the show had original paintings worth several crores, said Harish Kumar. The response was good and there were some firm enquiries, he said.
The Flea market which was organized as part of the Kultur Karavan was curated by FAFF. It was a variety of small and vegan businesses. Some unique exhibitors include Bake Trail, which displayed Vegan Patisseries and artisan bread pastries. The Weekend Café offered plant-based food. The future of food will be plant-based food says Krishna Vikas the man behind the Weekend Café. We offer alternatives to meat, he said. Another new variety of stalls was Topatoes, the potato-based recipe. Then there was a Millet Bowl that offered millet-based unique recipes.