Ramya Zambessan with Archana Vasudev at the Bengalur Poetry Festival in Bengalur. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Poetry festival Bengaluru 2025 in Bengaluru. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Poetry festival Bengaluru 2025 in Bengaluru. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Music, lyrics, language and, of course, the verse revived in the 9th edition of the Bengalur Festival Poetry Festival, which started on Saturday 2.
Since the meeting dedicated to remembering Kishhore Kumar on his 94th anniversary of those who persisted in some of the most suitable questions of our time, including Gaza, the festival repeated it: poetry and humanity are deeply interconnected and have been from the very beginning of civilization.
“It is advisable to have a poem today,” said the awarded poet and novelist Jeet Thayil in response to the poet Sri Lanka and the writer of short stories Shirani Rajapakse’s poem about it at the meeting “You Are The World”, which had six poets from all over the world. Thayil, who shared the stage with Ali Al Maazmi, Amal Al Sahlawi, Claudia Keelan, Daryl Lim Wei Jie, as well as Rajapakse, read two poems about the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, a brutal commemoration of starvation and mass killing of more than 60,000 people.
Among the peaks of the festival were “Love Liberates, does not bind”, who had actress and singer Ramya Nambessan talk about her creative process with media professional Arch Vasudev; “City Songs”, discussion of new anthology, The Penguin Book of Poems on Indian City; “Serenading in 70 mm”, which examined how poetry supports narration in the cinema; “Pada Sanchary”, when the poet of Cannad Mamta Sagar spoke and performed from his latest work and “remembered Kishhore Kumar”, who paid tribute to the universal artist two days before his 94th anniversary.
“Kishhore Kumar was a multilateral personality,” said writer TEDX Speaker and Bollywood commentator Balaji Vittal, who was in an interview with Anirudha Bhattacharjee, author Kishhore Kumar: The Ultimate Biography (2022) and RD Burman: Man The Music (2011). During the conversation with musical puncture, both Kumar’s life, music, the origin of the song and relationships with other well -known people discussed. The discussion also turned towards a slight connection of Karnataka with Bollywood: “Karnataka had never worked so closely with Bombay,” Vittal said, pointing out that Sholay was shot in Ramanagar.
The Bengalur Festival continues to August 3, starting with 10:00 to learn more, sign up
Published – August 2025 9:52 IS IS
