MUMBAI: The three-day-long Bhakti Sangeet Festival held at Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri came to an end on 24th April 2022. Organised by Sahitya Kala Parishad and the Department of Art, Culture and Languages, the Delhi government the festival enraptured the audience with its amazing artist lineup and performances.

The last day of the Bhakti Sangeet Festival had much to offer to the audience of devotional music lovers in the capital. The audience was treated to a melodious performance by Dr Meeta Panditwho started with bhakti geet ‘Maharaja dhundu Satguru sang’, followed by a Hanuman bhajan ‘Pawan Putra Hanuman’. Dr Meeta Pandit’s rendition also included Kabhir Bhajan- ‘Bhajo Re Man Ram Govind Hari’ followed by Tulsidas Bhajan – ‘Janki Nath Sahay Kare Ram’. She ended her performance with ‘Raghuvir Ruko Meri Laaj’. This performance was followed by Dr Madan Gopal Singh where his renditions embraced all the spirit of the South Asian spiritual traditions. In ‘Chaar Yaar' He used many poetic girahs from Baba Farid, Rumi, Amir Khusrau, Kabir, Nanak, Shah Hussain, Bulle Shah, Waris Shah, Khwaja Ghulam Fareed and Rabindranath Tagore. The festival was concluded with melodious ancient compositions by the Malik Brothers - Prashant and Nishant Malik. Their devotional songs were from ancient compositions of the medieval poets in the Dhrupad style. Dhrupad music primarily carries the richness of Bhakti and spirituality elements which are found as one of the major attractions in their duet vocal renditions.

The three-day festival saw nine stellar artists from various genres performing on a single stage. Day one saw the devotional recitals by Suranjan Khandalkar, a promising classical vocalist from Pune belonging to Patiala Gharana, Indira Naik, a classically trained in the Patiala Gayaki. And the renowned devotional singers Agnihotri Bandhu of Lucknow. On the second day, tDr Subhadra Desai, a professional Vocalist of the Hindustani Classical genre, and an academic engaged in Music Education and Research, SmtKalapini Komkali, daughter, and disciple of the legendary Pandit Kumar Gandharva and world-famous Daler Mehndi mesmerised the audience with their performances.

Talking about the festival, Shri Sanjay Kumar Srivastava IAS, Ministry of Mines Government of India, said, “I would like to congratulate Ms Swati Sharma, Dr Monica Priyadarshini and the entire team of Sahitya Kala Parishad for successfully organizing one more edition of Bhakti Sangeet Festival. India is a land of diverse cultures and traditions and every culture has its own way of appealing to the Almighty. Bhakti Sangeet Festival is that unique platform that brings the music of different genres on a single stage and binds them by their love for devotional songs. It has been a devotional musical carnival and I enjoyed it spiritually as well.”