Aye Mohabbat is a concert dedicated to the legendary singer Begum Akhtar (1914-1974) curated and presented by maestro Tushar Bhatia. He has researched extensively and produced a number of albums of Begum Akhtar for HMV, Music India & Sony music and now brings a live concert with singers, Sraboni Chaudhuri, Shivani Vaswani and Aditi Banerjee. On 03 March at NCPA the evening will showcase some of Akhtar’s popular ghazals, dadras and thumris in Urdu, Bhojpuri, Bangla and Awadhi. The show will include memorable songs like ‘Aye mohabbat’, ‘Diwana banana hai toh’, ‘Koyaliya mat kar pukar’, ‘Mere humnafas’ and Tushar Bhatia will share his interactions with people close to her.
The concert is part of the bigger festival at NCPA that includes film screenings like Astitva, Hindustani Classical Music with Harish Tiwari of Kirana Gharana and Living Traditions featuring Festival of Madhya Pradesh, Kabir songs by Jagdish Boriala group, Bundelkhandi Folk Drama, Gangaur Folk Dance and Bagheli Folk Drama. No festival is complete without a play and the most promising seems to be Bombay Flower Girl, the untold story of Ruttie – Ratanbai Petit, an affluent Parsi girl who married Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the most controversial leader of his time. A story of regret, revolt and ruin written by Gita Manek, directed by Manoj Shah, and performed by Bhamini Oza Gandhi.