The Qutubwood

There was a time when Delhi’s Qutub Festival was an eagerly awaited festival on the Capital’s cultural calender. Organised by the Department of Art,Culture and Languages and Delhi-based Punjabi Academy,the festival that completes two decades this year,was a one stop shop for a slew of folk art forms,Indian classical dance and music and more recently,sufi poetry and contemporary music that featured indie bands and Bollywood singers. With the majestic backdrop of the beautiful 12th century monument bathed in the silver glow of the moon,the festival boasted of soulful melodies and the echo of ghungroos in the past with artistes like Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma,Birju Maharaj,Sitara Devi,sufi kathak dancer Manjari Chaturvedi and qawwals from Pakistan among others.However,this year,the five day festival,is all about Bollywood and all things filmy with Sunidhi Chauhan,Sonu Nigam,KK,Shreya Ghoshal and Sukhwinder Singh taking centre stage. The list may boast of performers who have cleared the litmus test of being rockstars and entertainers,but the Capital will miss its date with classical artistes this year. Is it important to entirely replace the classical artistes with Bollywood singers? Can’t the two co-exist? EFS