Mehfil takes on a new avatar

If you were to think of an open-mic night at a pub, you would immediately think of poets reading or speaking out powerful words in English. At most, a few Hindi poets may join in with their beautifully written verses.

On the other hand, if one were to think of an Urdu mehfil, one would think of a bunch of older men sitting on a stage, speaking melodic — if incomprehensible — verses and a handful of followers of the language saying ‘Wah! Wah!’ at the right moments.

This is exactly the misconception that Poshak, a poetry outfit in the city, seeking to unite poets of all languages, looks to break. “Urdu poetry today is no longer inaccessible,” says Aakash Chintkindi, a full-time poet and occasional teacher, who founded Poshak. “If I were to read out a shayari to you, you may not understand a couple of words in it, but you’d definitely get the gist of the metaphor. This is why we want to have a night dedicated to celebrating Urdu poetry alone.”

The event, which Aakash is planning, will have a khuli nashist or open gathering, where top entries from aspiring shayars across the city will be read out. This will be followed by readings of Mohammad Alvi, one of the best-known exponents of post-modern Urdu poetry. “My fellow poet Swapnil Tiwari and I studied under him (Alvi), and are privy to several of his writings that are not available either online or in print. For instance, there’s a poem in Urdu titled Sherlock Holmes,” chuckles Aakash, adding that the third part of the night will have a mehfil with some well-known contemporary Urdu poets.

The poet is also excited about the line-up of artistes who will be turning up for the Mehfil. “Some of these poets have participated in Jashn-e-Rekhta, which is one of the biggest Urdu poetry festivals in the country. One of them, Zeest, is an erstwhile conceptualiser for Radio Mirchi and wrote for the hit show Yaadon Ka Idiot Box. I will also be sharing some of my own sher-o-shairis,” he elaborates.

Mumbai, Aakash adds, is a city that’s very apt for the first edition of such a venture. “Mumbai is a city that is steeped in Urdu language; that was the ground for poets like Majrooh Sultanpuri and Sahir Ludhianvi. It’s said that there was a chai tapri in Bandra where these poets used to gather and share shayaris. Raj Kapoor’s mehfils would see greats like Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Mehdi Hassan coming down to share their poetry. Even today, Bollywood cannot function without Urdu lyrics in songs,” he smiles.

In a world consumed with the English language, Aakash seeks to spread poetry Urdu and regional languages more.  “People still have a misconception that Urdu is a difficult language that no one understands. On the flip side, there are people who call themselves poets, but write very pedestrian, low-standard verses. While I am not opposed to freestyle, which poetry seems consumed by today, a certain quality needs to be maintained,” he laments. “This is why we are trying, through Poshak, to further poetry in all languages. The name Poshak itself is inclusive of all languages — “po” stands for poetry, “sha” for shayari and “k” for kavita. Last year, we dedicated all our endeavours solely to Urdu. This year, we are looking to add Marathi poetry programmes. Hopefully, with the help of a few Gujarati and Bengali poets that I know, we will be able to extend the programme to these languages by 2019,” he signs of on a hopeful note.

On February 4, 4.30pm onwards, at Independence Brewing Company, Andheri (W)