Rajasthan International Folk Festival on full Swing

Traditional folk music from the remote villages of Rajasthan is finding high-profile voices to carry it mainstream. A five-day Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF), which began Oct 1 at the sprawling Mehrangarh Fort, is promoting 'unheard of music from the desert villages that is dying a slow death due to lack of patronage and popularity'. On Saturday, the country's leading exponent of classical Rajasthani sarangi and vocal music, Ustad Sultan Khan, jumped the 'class divide between classical and folk music' to throw his lot with marginalised ethnic folk musicians of Marwar in a rare 'folk-meets classical' concert Maru Tarang at the RIFF. Maru Tarang featured Sultan Khan, his son Sabir Khan and Sultan's brother Hamid Khan and leading Manganiyar Sindhi sarangi maestro Lakha Khan and vocalist Anwar Khan. The group sang popular Rajasthani wedding and festival numbers, 'sufi' 'bhajans' and 'rajwari maand' (in praise of the maharaja) in both classical and the traditional folk styles, accompanied by the sarangi.
Mumbai-based Sufi and folk vocalist Rekha Bharadwaj, wife of filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj, is also collaborating with female folk musicians in the state. In a concert Oct 2, 'Maand and More', Rekha pitted her powerful contralto and earthy style of music with the state's living Maand and Bhopi (folk styles) legends, Bhanwari Devi Bhopi and Rehana Mirza singing Rajwari Maand from Udaipur and Sufi Zikr (the whirling chant 'la illaha il Allah') in jugalbandi with the duo. 'This is my first collaboration with folk musicians from Rajasthan. Though our styles are different, we sing of the same emotions - love, god and valour. Essentially, it is a bonding of feminine music from the state,' Rekha Bharadwaj told IANS. Rekha, who met Bhanwari Devi and Rehana Mirza in June this year for the first time felt she should have spent more time with them. 'I had to know their lifestyles and soil to get deeper into their music. I want to take them to Bollywood, if possible,' Rekha said. Most of the instruments, barring the sarangi, are on the verge of extinction.