Serenading souls in search of roots

The fourth edition of the Dhaka International Folk Festival (DIFF) 2018 was inaugurated yesterday in the capital's Army Stadium. Folk music enthusiasts enjoyed the thoroughly entertaining performances by musicians from both home and abroad.

The festival was opened by Bhabna Nritya Dol, a Bangladeshi dance troupe, who began the night with riveting dance performances. They were followed by a renowned Bangladeshi folk singer Abdul Hai Dewan, whose rendition of folk songs like “Piritir Bazar Bhalo Na”, “Tumi Kon Ba Dyashe Roila Rey” and “Tomar O Lagiya Rey Bondhu” kept the audience rapt.

Third on stage was Dikanda, a gypsy-type band from Poland, known to create diverse patterns of musical sounds from constant travel across the world. At the festival, the band swayed Dhakaiites with pulsating beats produced from various western and indigenous instruments.  

From neighbouring Slavic countries to the Balkans, Russia, Israel, Africa and India, proceeding further and further was inevitable: just as it is natural, for anybody of European heritage wanting to explore the Eastern “space”, to embrace the “different” traditions that music has always kept at a distance. Even when “real musicians” had an addiction for folk music, considering it a reservoir of inspiration: one need only think of the nationalistic trends in post-Romantic music. At the core of a wide-ranging musical project, Dikanda's “eastern” sound conjures symbolic spaces of unmatched immensity.

Promising Indian singer-instrumentalist Satyaki Banerjee presented entertaining performances. With his accompanists playing various kinds of folk and percussion instruments, Satyaki brought forth the excitement of folk rhythms that resonated with the audience superbly.

Bigger rounds of applause were reserved for the night's ultimate performers -- Padma Shri Puranchand Wadali and his son Lakhwinder Wadali soulfully took off the musical flight on the opening night of DIFF, connecting tens of thousands of souls with the ultimate. They began with a Bulleh Shah Kalam number Tere Naam. The love between the ultimate and the musical devotees happened on stage as the maestro and his prodigal son wove a garland of melodies with a Manj Khamaj taan and soul searching pukar (repetitive emotional plea of melodies). The living legend of Sufi music, along with his ensemble later mesmerised with Hazrat Amir Khusro's compositions Main Toh Piya Se Naina and Chhap Tilak, followed by Bulleh Shah's adaptation of the Hazrat Amir Khusrow classic Dama Dam Mast Qalandar. The highly energetic performance had the audience enthralled throughout, ending the first night of Dhaka International Folk Fest 2018 on a musical high.

At the opening ceremony that followed, Chairman of Sun Foundation Anjan Chowdhury, Dhaka Bank Managing Director and CEO Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Grameeenphone Deputy CEO and CMO Yasir Azman, and Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon joined the chief guest Finance Minister AMA Muhith and special guest Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzaman Noor on stage.

In his speech, Asaduzzaman Noor thanked the vivacious presence of the youth at the folk festival. “This is a platform where we present our folk music and listen to folk melodies from around the world. This is significantly developing a collective of cultured minds,” said Asaduzzaman Noor.

“Music runs in the blood of Bangladeshis; they sing and dance when they go fishing, farming, harvesting and doing other daily chores,” AMA Muhith said in his speech, adding, “Culture and taste is something that must be acquired at a festival like this, where we get to hear the music of our roots.”

The Dhaka International Folk Festival, presented by Meril, powered by Dhaka Bank and organised by Sun Communications, continues today and tomorrow, featuring an array of performers from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, USA, Bahrain and Spain.