Padma Shri award winner and Indian classical music exponent Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty will perform at a 10-day cultural festival here that will share cultural bonds with India.
Pandit Ajoy will be part of the "Shared History Festival" by Teamwork Arts in collaboration with the High Commission of India in South Africa.
"Shared History is a festival that perfectly blends with the festivity and spirit of the rainbow country and its uniqueness lies in the success it has enjoyed in highlighting the shared bonds between the two countries through the performing arts," said Teamwork Arts Founder Sanjoy Roy, who initiated the festival a decade ago.
The festival this year has been considerably shortened from its previous month-long programme of repeated performances by artists from India.
"Single performances will have the traction to draw an audience that was previously spread out over two or more performances," said Brenda Sakellarides, Teamwork's representative in South Africa.
"To optimise the venues and leverage the audience it was decided to present a high impact compact programme over a ten-day period," she said.
The festival will start on August 31 with a music programme by Sonam Kalra and her 'Sufi Gospel Project' that blends traditional western gospel with Indian classical sounds and Indian spiritual texts.
South African group Aafrind will perform in 'Confluence', in which diverse African, Western and Indian music will be presented in a fusion format.
The title of the show comes from the collaboration between Indian and African artists. Each year the cuisine of a region in India is highlighted as part of the Festival.
This year the 'Classic India Restaurant' will showcase 'Awadhi cuisine', which uses cooking patterns similar to those of Central Asia, the Middle East and Northern India.
For theatre lovers, there will be well-known playwright Mahesh Dattani's 'Dance like a Man', relating the story of Jairaj and Ratna, two Bharatnatyam dancers past their prime, contrasted with that of their daughter Lata, who is on the brink of establishing herself as a brilliant dancer.
Chakrabarty's performance will bring the curtain down of the festival with a grand finale at the prestigious Nelson Mandela Theatre on September 9.
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