Level playing Paddy Fields 2019

Pursuing its rich legacy built over the last three years, the Paddy Fields folk music festival is now into its 2019 avatar, and will focus on seven performers across the two-day event scheduled on November 29 and 30, 2019 at the Central Hall, Nesco, Goregaon (East), Mumbai. The featured musicians are: Sukhwinder Singh along with Meet Brothers, Munnawar Masoom, Osman Mir, Pooja Gaitonde, Purbayan Chatterjee, and Abhijit Pohankar.

The theme of Paddy Fields, this time around, is a tribute to writers, composers, musicians, vocalists, and music directors, covering the genres of folk, ghazal, qawwali, and world music, cutting across several languages, including Punjabi, Marathi, and Gujarati.

In following the theme, Purbayan Chatterjee and the Tanushree Shankar Dance Troupe will pay tribute to the legendary Ananda Shankar, whose self-titled album, released in 1970, first introduced me to Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and Doors’ “Light My Fire”.

Among the other featured artistes, Abhijit Pohankar will bring Marathi Folk to the event, whereas the Meet Brothers will perform Punjabi folk. However, there is no denying that the highlight among the performers will be the presence of Sukhwinder Singh, the acclaimed singer, composer, actor, and lyricist, popular for his

Bollywood songs such as: “Jai Ho”, “Chaiyya Chaiyya”, “Dard-E-Disco”, “Chak De India”, “Haule Haule”, “Marjaani”, “Satakali”, and “Udi Udi Jaye”, among dozens of others. With a singing career that spans 34 years, Sukhwinder sings across multiple languages.

This is what the Paddy Fields 2019 schedule looks like –

29th November

• 8 pm to 9 pm – Pooja Gaitonde
• 9.15 pm to 10.15 pm – Munnawar Masoom
• 10.30 pm to 11.30 pm – Meet Brothers

30th November

• 7 pm to 8 pm – Purbayan Chatterjee & The Tanushree Shankar Dance Troupe
• 8.15 pm to 9.15 pm – Osman Mir
• 9.30 pm to 10.30 pm – Abhijit Pohankar
• 10.45 pm to 12 midnight – Sukhwinder Singh
  

Once again, credit for the curation of the outstanding line-up goes to the team at Turnkey Music and Publishing – headed by Atul Churamani, with able support provided by team mates Soumitra Maitra and Anand Prasad – whose thankless efforts behind this year’s Paddy Fields will be available for live viewing, in Mumbai, on November 29 and 30.

Going by their past average, this time around too, Paddy Fields appears to be another listeners’ collective edition!