Bengalooru Habba to focus on regional talent

The fourth edition of Bengalooru Habba, the city festival which celebrates Bengalooru, will focus on promoting regional talent. The event will be held from December 3-10, 2006.

According to the Bengalooru Habba committee, this year the event will focus on promoting regional talent in a much larger manner than before. It promises to be bigger and better with a very distinctive regional Karnataka flavour.

Nandini Alva, managing trustee, Artistes' Foundation for the Arts (AFFA), which is organising the Habba, said, "The Bengalooru Habba has received great support from the people of Karnataka over the last three years. This year keeping with the spirit of Suvarna Karnataka, we have decided to showcase Karnataka culture and art and the Bengalooru Habba 2006 will focus on showcasing the talent from Karnataka predominantly."

The pre-Habba activities will be kicked off by awareness programmes in classical music, dance and lecture demonstrations for students across 30 schools and colleges in Bengalooru from November 15-30.

Well-known artistes like Vishwa Mohan Bhat (Hawaiian guitar), Shiv Kumar Sharma (santoor), Shashank (flute), U Rajesh (mandolin) and Sharmila Mukherjee (odissi) among others will lead the pre-Habba awareness programme.

I M Vittal Murthy, secretary, Kannada Culture, information and tourism department, Government of Karnataka, said, "Karnataka and Kannada have created some of the best culture and traditions in the country. We are glad that a festival like the Bengalooru Habba is able to channelise these traditional art forms and showcase them to the urban populace who are not aware of what our state can offer. The government is happy to be associated with the Bengalooru Habba this year."

For the first time, the event will showcase the Suvarna Bengalooru Habba, a book fair, art, culture and crafts display, which will showcase "Karnataka Arts "� A 50-Year History" with Jnanpitha awardees literary works of like Girish Karnad, Kuvempu, Bendre, Shivram Karanth and Maasthi Venkatesh Iyengar.

Traditional Kannada theatre performances from people like Master Hirraniah, Pouranika Nataka among other will also be a part of this celebration.