Kolkata: India’s biggest mystic music festival, Ruhaniyat is back in a new avatar. Over the years, the Ruhaniyat festival has been crisscrossing history, geography and musical streams featuring solos, group presentations, specially curated Global Productions that melts boundaries and creates Musical bridges of Universal brotherhood, love, harmony, peace and joy.
The pandemic, the lockdown and all that followed also made us realize how little do we need in life. It made us ask some fundamental questions. So many realizations, several lessons learnt. And, one hopes that the impact of all the soul searching is not short-lived. When amid all the chaos, for most, connecting with the divine, in whatever way, seemed like a soothing balm, a ray of hope. Reading or listening to the immortal works of great Saints, realized masters gave solace and also provided that most needed ray of hope.
As November arrived, we at Banyan Tree helplessly looked at the scenario which was far from suitable to take off on our annual Ruhaniyat journey. We kept receiving calls from our artists, audiences enquiring on when it will be possible. Finally, the wait is over and we are all set to present Ruhaniyat once again. Though except Mumbai, it will not be a physical concert, we are thankful that we can present Ruhaniyat at all, even if in a digital format to all our loyal audiences across the country.
And, despite the difficult times to be able to present Ruhaniyat in all the eight cities, once again, we are truly grateful to our National Partners Tata Consultancy Services for joining hands with us yet again.
In each city, every digital version will be specially curated Ruhaniyat concert. Each will be a combination of freshly shot performances as well as some exceptional performances from our Ruhaniyat archives, keeping in mind the taste of each city and acts which they might have missed out over the years.
Digital Ruhaniyat concert in Kolkata will be presented on 6th March, 6 pm onward having a high range of variety in artiste line up like Lal Vakh and Sufi Kalam by Abdul Rashid Hafiz and Group (Kashmir), When hearts connect by Nandesh Umap with Group (Maharashtra), Balalaika Ensemble (Russia), Polyphony Songs - Vaya Quartet (Bulgaria), Qawwali Warsi Brothers & Group.
After Kolkata, Ruhaniyat concerts will be held in Delhi (7th March) featuring enchanting glimpses of the baul world by Parvathy Baul (West Bengal), a bridge across dunes by Sawan Khan and group (Rajasthan) and so on, Ahmedabad (13th March), Bengaluru (14th March), Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. In Mumbai, Ruhaniyat will be presented in Hybrid format (Virtual and limited live audience). Parvathy Baul says,” It’s an immense pleasure to be a part of such a grand musical celebration Ruhaniyat. It’s going global now. As it is happening on digital platforms so audiences from any cities can have a watch the same. It deals with a great range of various genres of music and artists.” (UNI)
