With just two months left for the Jodhpur RIFF festival, Divya Bhatia, the festival director and producer, walks us down the years of its inception and gives us a sneak peek into the youth performances that one can expect this year. By Angela Paljor
Youth performances and more international collaborations will contribute to the legacy of Jodhpur RIFF (Rajasthan International Folk Festival) which has given folk music marketability, patronage and made it mainstream over the last couple of years.
Starting with a series of spectacular concerts and events based in and around the Mehrangarh Fort on Sharad Purnima, the brightest full moon of the year in northern India, this year’s edition will be opened by young artistes from the langa community (they are professional musicians. They are either sarangiya langa, who can sing and simultaneously play the exquisite Sindhi sarangi or the surnaiya langa, who play the algoza and other woodwind instruments). This will be followed by traditional qawwali.
Adding elements to the festival has been a part of the planning process and its director Divya Bhatia tells us, “Five years ago, we started working on children’s folk mornings where we got around 4,000 school children to sing with the masters in a park with no stage to segregate them. This experiment worked so well as children played around with the artists themselves and looked at this friendly guru-shishya exchange as part of our interactive culture and not as a generational barrier or artistic curfew.”
The children’s folk morning, which will take place at Veer Durga Das Memorial Park, Masuriya, has in store various little wonders, including Kathputali, Kachi Ghidi, a dance form featuring a colourful dummy-horse with men in elaborate costumes dancing to the rhythms of the drums along with Bahrupiya – the artful, disguise sepcialist and performer. Then there is Jogi Kalbeliya Nritya or the snake dance.
Jazz Manouche with Nicotine Swing will premiere in India with fresh, lethal musical tones. They will blend American Swing with Gypsy string rhythms, ‘manouche’ music from the 30’s. For the first time, there will be a showcase of Bhil tribals.
“We are planning a free concert and expecting 4,000 citizens of Jodhpur to show up. We will have a midnight concert on a full moon night that will end in an impromptu jamming session,” adds Bhatia.
Talking about the settings that did take a lot of brain-storming and has been continuously evolving, Bhatia says, “I think the experience should be for both sides – the audience and the artists. Sure the artist has to vibe with the audience but we need to prime the audience with atmospherics so that the vibe they create can enhance the artiste’s performance.”
What started as Jaipur Heritage Festival in 2007, initiated by John Singh and his wife Faith along with HH Gaj Singh of Marwar-Jodhpur, is now big ticket with the royal becoming a chief patron of Jodhpur RIFF. “The main thinking behind it was the availability of the diverse cultural heritage that Jaipur had to offer. Be it architecture, artisans, potters, puppeteers, painters, hand block printers, musicians and many more. A need was felt to create a common platform for all the people to work together,” shares Bhatia.
The festival gradually drifted apart into the Jaipur literary Festival and Jodhpur RIFF, providing people a platform for creativity and sustainable development.
Bhatia was a part of planning and running the programme at both national and international levels. He also worked towards relabelling and producing the festival. Over the years the pattern of the programme kept evolving while its intent remained constant as a non-profit organisation. “We wanted the Rajasthani folk musicians to benefit from the festival either directly or indirectly and to have a positive effect on their lifestyles and lineage.”
The best part of the festival is living legends which will take place near Dhana Bhiyan Chatri, Mehrangarh Fort, on the second day. The event will witness legendary brothers Bhikha Khan and Multan Khan Manganiyar from Barmer’s Dedariyar village boom with their vocals and kamaycha. Both are trained in traditional music by their father Juntha Khan. This will be followed by 74-year-old ladu Ram Nayak’s vocals and derun (a percussion instrument).
In terms of the audience, Bhatia feels that there has not been a rapid build but after a couple of years they might have to put a cap. “It happened two years ago when we had to change the ticketing format. Initially, each slot had its own ticket and people who were really interested would show up for certain events while the rest would crowd in for one performance. One idea was to increase the prices so that only the aficionados could come but then we felt that it wasn’t fair enough. Now, one can either buy a day ticket or a full festival. Though it’s unfair for the ones who want to watch just one performance, it is the only way to manage the crowd as we don’t have a conventional format of seating,” Bhatia adds.
Jodhpur RIFF has also witnessed far greater acceptance abroad and within the country. “People would earlier ask us why Jodhpur. However, now people really appreciate the idea as people have started to accept the ideology and the value of the festival.”
The gathering is not bound to Jodhpur or Indian culture. Today, one can witness various forms of collaborations. “This year we are starting two new collaborations and developing the old ones. Earlier these ties would be only for the festival but now we run them for a few years. One such case is of two Rajasthani and two Australian musicians which has been running for the last five years. We have released one album in Australia and are waiting for the second. We have released one in Scotland and shot for another in Jodhpur this year.”