Kala Ghoda festival turns 18

If you happen to walk down the lane from Jehangir Art Gallery today, you will see the entire area teeming with people, art installations, stalls with dainty crafts items and rural handicrafts baubles on display. Perhaps you’ll also see an artist or two sitting and sketching faces and sceneries, or making people laugh with caricatures. Yes, it’s that time of the year again. The Kala Ghoda festival — one of Mumbai’s most iconic street fests — kicks off today. The 18th edition of this festival, which will span a period of nine days, from February 4 to 12, is definitely a special one, seeing that this will be the first edition to take place since the unveiling of the Kala Ghoda statue.

“It gives our festival a physical identity. Even though the festival has become popular over the years, it is only now that there is a symbol that you can attach to it. It also gives people a chance to know the history behind Kala Ghoda and where the place gets its name,” says festival director Brinda Miller, who has been involved with the street fest since just a couple of years after its inception.

The festival, says Brinda, has changed and evolved in the years since its inception, till it’s hardly recognisable now. “It’s like it was a child, which has now grown to adulthood. It was originally a small festival that spanned two weeks with about 25 events mostly concentrated on the weekends. Now, we have over 500 programs scattered through the week and people actually come for them regardless of whether they fall on weekdays or weekends,” she explains, adding that the essence of the fair and the principle agenda — to spread awareness about the architectural and cultural heritage of the area — has remained the same.

Another change that Brinda has observed is the change in the visitors, which tends to a younger crowd than ever before. “Kids nowadays see a festival where they can go have some fun for free and they come for it; it’s like the crowd is getting younger every year. I think it’s great exposure for them too. After all, how many of them would otherwise go to watch traditional dance or see Parveen Sultana perform,” she challenges.

Following the theme of the unveiling of the Spirit of Kala Ghoda statue, the children’s section is called ‘Rocking Horse,’ the food section is called ‘Horse Radish,’ the literature section is called ‘Charting Trails,’ the street section is called ‘Kacchi Ghodi,’ the stand up comedy section is called ‘Horsing Around,’ and so on. “It’s not just the names though. For the first time ever, we are going to have only horse-themed art installations on the street. Maybe we’ll mix it up a bit at Cross Maidan,” muses Brinda.

Some of the events, which the organiser is looking forward to most, are performances by Parveen Sultana and Rahul Sharma, as well as the final day music concert by Javed Ali and Sukhwinder Singh. “Some of the other events that I’m really looking forwards to is the production of Mera Who Matlab Nahi Tha, the visual arts instalments by Sunil Padwal, and the dance performances by Malika Sarabhai, Sudha Chandran and Gracie Singh,” she concludes.