The unique three-day event, The Kabir Festival explores the life, music and poetry of the saint-poet Kabir Das

We all have grown up listening to his two-line dohas like Bura Jo Dekhan Mein Chala or Kaal Kare So Aaj Kar and now exploring the very same works and life of the famous poet Sant Kabir Das is the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology that has come up with a unique three-day festival – The Kabir Festival.

The festival will see the screening of films based on his life and a music concert wherein Kabir’s verses will be presented. Shabnam Virmani, who took five years to complete them, has directed the films. Talking about her inspirations to make these films she says, “The immediate trigger was being a mute witness to the Godhra riots in 2002, and the religious violence that followed. I think, however, the search was also deeply personal. Kabir shows us a way to understand why there is so much divisiveness and fragmentation around us, as well as within us, and how the two are connected.”

Virmani doubts if the society was ever in deep touch with figures like Kabir. According to her history seems to be a pretty uneven record of human folly, divisiveness and violence, so Kabir is as much a voice of dissent, clarity and sanity today as he perhaps was in the 15th century. “Somehow, our society and culture doesn't offer us those spaces, contexts and rituals to connect with this kind of spiritual understanding. Where we do find a kernel of this spiritual understanding when it’s so heavily overlaid with religious orthodoxy and some kind of sectarian, divisive impulse,” she adds.

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