Celebrities To Descend On Patna For Durga Puja

Happy days are here again for the music buffs in the city, it seems. If state culture minister Ashok Singh’s Rs 45-lakh mega show materialises, the musical soirees of the 1970s will be back in the city.

Leading artists of the country will perform in the state capital during this Durga Puja. “The government has taken upon itself the task of restoring the cultural ambience of Patna,” remarked Singh, speaking about the mega three-day event from October 3 at the historic Gandhi Maidan.

Pandit Jasraj, Kishan Maharaj, Birju Maharaj, Lachhu Maharaj, Udit Narayan, Vindhyavasini Devi, Girija Devi and many others have already given their consent for the shows. “These musical soirees will begin at 8 pm and continue till the wee hours of the morning. Qawwali and ghazal singers from Mumbai will be assisted by local artists like Shyam Das Mishra, Amrita Jha and Sharda Sinha,” promises the minister.
The pledge to give Patna a cultural event to remember was in fact taken by RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav at a recent function in which Girija Devi performed. “We will call leading artists during Durga Puja. We are trying to revive a tradition which has been dying,” he remarked before the audience.

In the 1970s, cultural shows in Patna were managed by clubs organising Durja Puja festivals. “There was a spirit of competition among the clubs and they called celebrities who enjoyed performing here,” recalls Singh. The great Bismillah Khan made it a point to come to Patna during the Puja, which also gave him an opportunity to relate to his native place, Dumraon, 100 km from here. So did danseuse Sitara Devi. The last three nights of the Puja used to witness a virtually sleepless Patna with citizens hopping from one pandal to another.

However, this tradition appeared to have died down in the 1980s with the law and order situation taking a dip and people no longer willing to spend nights outside their homes. The clubs stopped sponsoring trips of major artists and the likes of Bismillah Khan and Bhimsen Joshi were replaced with local orchestras, offering Hindi movie songs.