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Taking away the formality that we generally associate with classical and folk music, the festival provided space for some serious fun.

Appealing (From left) Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia in performance

Moon, music, moments, the inaugural Rajasthan International Folk Festival (Jodhpur RIFF) offered it all. For three days and four nights, Mehrangarh Fort resounded with 150 musicians drawn from different communities across Rajasthan, as well as, performers of national and international standing from across the world. The mood was just right for the event scheduled around Sharad Poornima, when the moon is at its brightest and is also a time of festivities in Jodhpur.

An “organic” off shoot of Jaipur Heritage International Festival as Faith Singh, Founder Trustee of Jaipur Virasat Foundation, one of the two organisers of the festival puts it, the festival focussed only on music. “Both the festivals come under the Festivals of Development endorsed by UNESCO as a peoples’ platform for sustainable development as the underlying aim is to create new livelihood opportunities for incredibly talented performing artists and craftspeople of Rajasthan,” says Maharaja Gaj Singh, Managing Trustee, Mehrangarh Museum Trust, the other organiser.

Taking away the formality that we generally associate with classical and folk music, the festival provided space for some serious fun. On the first night Indian Ocean band performed with the folk musicians Chugga Khan from Jaisalmer and Nathu Lal Solanki from Pushkar. As Amit’s drums seamlessly blended with Solanki’s nagara, Chugga Khan with his khartal and morchang complimented Rahul Ram in achieving new improvisational depths on stage. Rahul refused to term as jamming as they had practised for five days together. We like their work and decided to record a song with them for our forthcoming film.” The song “Maula Maula” has been written by Chugga himself. As always, no Indian Ocean performance could be complete without social comment. So this time it was “Sone Ki Nagari Ke Sau Sau Hain Raja, Andhe Rajao Main Kana Maharaja.” With lines like ‘bandar madari ka afsar hai mere bhai’, there was little confusion on whom the song was addressed to. However, what caught the imagination of the crowd the most were Chugga’s interludes with morchang and khartal. His impromptu jigs with khartal were matching the electrifying presence of the band on the stage. The band also performed its staple hits like “Kandisa” and “Ruk Ja O Bande”, but the novelty factor was missing.

Indian Ocean in concert with Chugga Khan.

Awashed with moonlight the next evening belonged to the subtlety of the flute of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. The man was in form as he presented a selection of classical ragas but the night took a new high when he got into a musical interaction with the wind instruments from Rajasthan. With Mahruddin Langa on Algoza, he presented the popular “Padharo Mare Des”. Short on communication skills, Mahruddin could not explain how he balanced the base of his instrument, but could explain through his actions how his instrument requires more lung power than Panditji’s flute. While you have to blow off on a flute, algoza requires continuous supply of air.

In between there was vocalist Manisha Agrawal who rendered some mesmerising songs and bhajans in maand style to mark Sharad Poornima. Set in Ajit Villas terrace where the Maharaja used to spend the nights with his consort, Manisha’s voice evoked emotions of passion and separation in equal measure. Manisha shared she perfected the maand style by going into the interiors listening to the folk artistes. “But being trained in classical music my voice sound refined. It doesn’t have the raw appeal that the folk artistes have.”

Then there were international collaborations and workshops where you can touch a feel the music and some endangered musical instruments. Be it Steel Rigg and Club Mehran from the UK or Tarhana from Holland, all of them fused with Rajasthani sounds to create a melody which could be placed in history but not geography.

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