The legacy of famed Bhojpuri playwright Bhikhari Thakur set in music by Kalpana Potwary, a trained Assamese folk artist will float through the Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF) at Jodhpur this October.
Kalpana, a prodigy of Bhojpuri music, who has around 7000 songs to her credit in Bhojpuri, Hindi, Bengali, English and 23 other languages, is among the artistes lined up for the five-day RIFF beginning October 17.
The musician would perform tracks based on the life of Thakur, popularly known as the "Shakespeare of Bhojpuri".
"Every year, we will try and introduce a new folk language in the festival to extend our purview," Divya Bhatia, director, RIFF told PTI.
The festival will also embark a new exploration of traditional Bhojpuri music through screening documentary films like "Bidesia in Bambai" and "Jahaji Music" by Surabhi Sharma.
The festival, which brings to the forefront Rajasthani folk music and artisans has been traditionally a partnership between the Mehrangarh Museum Trust (MMT) and Jaipur Virasat Foundation (JVF).
In this year's edition, RIFF will also put under spotlight the Mangniyars musical community which hails from Marwar region of Rajasthan.
"This musical group is mostly equated with folk music but little is known about their rich repertoire of styles and varied musical skills. Many people have heard about the Mangniyars but very few know about them. Our aim therefore, is to provide a platform to these talented folk artists," Bhatia says.
The music festival would also mark the reunion of gypsies of Europe who will trace their origins back to Rajasthan through a performance "Return to Rajasthan", an emotional encounter with Rajasthani traditional artists, their land-cousins from ages ago.
Led by Cedric Leonardi, Mario Reyes and Amtonio Carmona with Rajsthani artists, the repertoire will present some variations to iconic songs- 'Volare', 'Bomboleo' and 'Um Amour' among others.
