A fesival of Begum Akhtar centenary commemoration started at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya in Bhopal on Tuesday afternoon, 18 August 2015. This programme has been organised by Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya(IGRMS) in collabaration with Indira Gandhi National Center For Arts (IGNCA) and Naad Sagar, New Delhi was inaugurated by Shri Anthony De Sa Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh along with Prof Sarit Kumar Choudhuri (Director, IGRMS), Shri Navin C.R. Khilani (CEO Executive Officer, NaadSaagar, New Delhi), Shri Arun Kumar Shrivastava (Joint director, IGRMS), Shri Arun Kiro, Assistant Curator and Programme coordinator and other staff of Sangrahalaya were present.   

The programme comprises a Photo Exhibition on the life, works and legacy of Begum Akhtar. Akhtari Bai faizabadi was more popularly known as Begum Akhtar born on 7th october 1914 in the small town of Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh. Though Beghum Akhtar had acted in several Hindi movies, it was her fabulous rendition of ghazals that won her laurels from all round. She was a well known Indian singer of ghazal, dadra and thumri genres of Hindustani Classical music. Endowed with a rich voice, she has evolved a distinct style of rendering ghazals that brought her the title of Mallika-e- Ghazal (Queen of Ghazal). She was awared with Padma shri and Padma Bhusan (posthumously). She learnt music at her tender age from classical stalwarts like Ustad Imdad Khan, the great sarangi exponent, and later under Ata Mohammed Khan, Mohammad Khan, Abdul Waheed Khan and finally she became the disciple of Ustad Jhande Khan Saheb. She made her first public peformance at the tender age of fifteen and continued the music legacy till death. She used to sing in private concerts, at elite houses, in all the prestigious music conferences throughout India. She acted in few Hindi movies like Ameena (1934), Mumtaz Begum (1934), Jawaani Ka Nasha (1935), Naseeb Ka Chakkar (1935), Satyajit Ray's Bengali film 'JALSA GHAR' (1958) also sang in movies like Daana Paani (1953) and Ehsaan (1954) in her credit. The centenary celebrations offer an opportunity to pay homage to the queen of ghazal by a two-day festival. The festival will feature performances by Vidushi Subhra Guha,
Janab Majid Hussain Qawwal, Vidushi Shurti Sadulkar Katkar and
Ustad Aslam Khan is being organised at Veethi Sankul Auditorium. An audio-visual presentation on Begum Akhtar and a film ‘Roti’ will be screened on August 22nd &23rd respectively at Rock Art Heritage Conference Hall both days at 11.30am.

Date: September 14, 2015