ASIA SCENE: Thank you all who kept us entertained

A picture from the play Bhoot Bungalow. PHOTO| ALLAUDIN QURESHI

What you need to know:

  • To begin with, Vibgyor and Watch a Story Kenya with presentations like A Shaft of Sunlight and more recently Bhoot Bungalow take the lead in showcasing innovative home grown theatrical entertainment.

This is the time of the year to reminisce and pay tribute to happy showers of cultural, musical, poetical and stage events that delighted and warmed up the hearts of our show-goers during the good old year 2018.

To begin with, Vibgyor and Watch a Story Kenya with presentations like A Shaft of Sunlight and more recently Bhoot Bungalow take the lead in showcasing innovative home grown theatrical entertainment.

Aperture Africa’s musical Cinderella was equally mesmerising. Vibgyor’s Kunjan Dholakhia and Hinal Thakkar, together with Aperture’s Amar Desai and Janita, rightly have a reason to feel proud to have given fresh dimensions to our theatre and served theatre in a manner that can be termed as redefining.

ROMANCE, BEAUTY

Navrang Fine Arts Foundation and Ranees Productions gallantly served the cause of keeping our cultural heart throbbing by bringing out from the land of our ancestors the romance and beauty of our traditional music, ragas, ghazals and melodies composed within the realm of soul soothing showers of happy moments for music lovers.

NFAF’s Hazaron Khwahishen and Musical Jugalbandi and Ranee Jamal’s presentation of maestro Rahat Fatheali Khan and Shreya Goshal left us some real life melodies to cherish.

Award winning Kenyan movie Subira, a unique cinematic crusade against traditions and norms of society that suppress a woman’s freedom, initiated and directed by Sippy Chadha, lived a Kenyan dream and made headlines the world over during the year under reminisce. Kenbharti, while celebrating Maa Tujhe Salaam 7, honoured seven Kenyan Asian women who excelled in social or community service. This was a true and fulfilling shower of appreciation for women.

The Ismaili Kenya Arts Festival 2018 was a welcome and highly appreciated shower of happiness for artists from the region falling under the Aga Khan Council of Kenya.

The Ismaili community, in commemorating the Diamond Jubilee of His Highness the Aga Khan, participated in this inaugural International arts festival.

The festival gave an opportunity to artists from Kenya, Kigali, Johannesburg and Namibia to participate in dance, literary arts, musical performances, visual arts, poetical recitations and graphic arts to showcase their talent and compete for a global artistic expression.

This exciting inaugural artistic journey for recognition of our talent was a unique shower of creative happiness not only for the organisers and participants but also for Yours Faithfully, who was invited to be a member of the judiciary panel.

GREAT SERVICE

Salutations to the Aga Khan Council of Kenya for this great service and opportunity accorded to our artistic fraternity.

Asian Foundation of Kenya’s celebration to mark three decades of philanthropic service without racial, political or religious leanings, and Universal Peace Federation’s tree planting and get-to-gather ceremonies to uphold the banner of peace and interfaith understanding among Kenyans, were very welcome showers of unity, peace, love and understanding in our multiracial, multicultural, multi-communal and multi-religious society.

Let us toast to welcome 2019 and look forward to yet another period of blessed, creative and artistic presentations and happy loving entertainment for our peaceful and fun-loving audience.