Jaipur: After the grand opening day, and the buzz that has garnered reams of newsprint and television coverage across the world, one expected an even larger turnout on the Day 2 of the JLF 2017. Perhaps it was Japur’s windy morning that played a spoilsport. Though not bursting at the seams, there were crowds thronging the venue at some point, but only when certain celebrities participated in a couple of sessions — no prizes for guessing who these well-known people were — Bollywood celebs of course!
If there’s one Bollywood personality making waves in literary circles after songwriters Gulzar, Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi, it’s lyricist singer Swanand Kirkire. He was joined in by composer singer Ankur Tewari when they regaled the audience with soulful singing. Soon after, it was Gulzar and Pavan K. Varma in conversation on ‘Poetry and its Form: Suspected Poetry’. The young, it seems never get tired of Gulzar and his original style of imagery and metaphors. An American sitting next to me summed it up: “Gulzar’s blank verse is consistently sure-footed and unflustered. I love it.”
What was undoubtedly the session of the day was Main ‘Shayar Toh Nahin’, in which Rishi Kapoor was in a most confessional mood with Rachel Dwyer in conversation.
