Thaindian News

Kolkata, Dec 19 (IANS) The Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2012 will celebrate the 150th and centenary birth anniversaries of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, respectively, a festival official said Monday.

The third edition of the festival will be held Jan 11 - 15.

“This year we will celebrate 150th and centenary birth anniversaries of Rabindranath Tagore and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The Urdu poet had contributed a lot regarding the modernisation of the Urdu language,” said Anjum Katyal, associate director of the festival.

“Representatives from both Pakistan and India will be there in the festival. Authors from France, Germany and US will also be present,” said Katyal.

The inaugural event of the festival will be a tribute to Tagore with the launch of the book “The Last Harvest - The Art of Tagore”.

Naseeruddin Shah, Ustad Shujaat Khan and Faiz’s daughter Salima Hashmi will be commemorating Faiz through his poetry and ghazals. The festival will bring to India for the first time the film “Jago Hua Savera”, which has dialogue and songs by Faiz, and was launched as many as 53 years ago in 1958.

The festival will also see the launch of the book “Tagore and China”, which comprises collected articles and essays on Tagore by both Chinese and Indian scholars.

Man Asian Literary Prize winning Chinese writer Bi Feiyu will also be present at the festival and will discuss his book “Three Sisters”, apart from speaking on modern Chinese literature and cinema.

“Bi Feiyu will be present at the festival. Another Chinese scholar who is currently in India will also be at the festival. A total of 26 delegates will be coming from out of Bengal,” said Katyal.