Spojen 2.0 to bring voices from across the country at BKC

Spoken 1.0 being held at BKC

Bid adieu to the slight chill and the gentle breeze in the January air with art, poetry and music this weekend. Spoken 2.0, being organised by Kommune, will see storytellers, thespians and bands narrate their stories through their craft. The impressive line-up comprises storyteller Mohammed Sadriwala, musical acts like Indian Ocean and singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad, and actors Jim Sarbh and Kubbra Sait.

"We love Bombay and always have a ball playing there. The last time we visited, we jammed with Shankar Mahadevan. And we're excited to perform at this festival we have heard so much about," says Rahul Ram, bassist of Indian Ocean, who will be playing four unreleased songs at the BKC venue. While one is a version of a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan song, another uses a Sant Kabir poem. They also have an instrumental number and a song written by Varun Grover.

The members of Indian Ocean

"There are some songs we can't play live, like the one with our sax player as he won't be there. But of course, the crowd doesn't let us get off the stage without playing Bandeh," laughs Ram. They are currently in the process of recording songs for two films, while their new material gets mixed at a studio, and will release as singles. "No one buys albums these days," Ram concludes.

Singer-songwriter Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, too, will be flying in from Delhi for the event, fresh after releasing a new single last week. She will play a set with guitarist Abhishek Mittal. A pioneer in introducing Latin jazz to the Capital, Bhattacharya is also someone who chose to come back to India to pursue music after completing a course at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Mumbaikars will hear the 23-year-old getting in touch with her roots as she performs her latest single, Shams, her first Hindi composition, inspired by Elif Shafak's book The Forty Rules of Love.

Sanjeeta Bhattacharya

"It is my first collaboration in Hindi with writer and poetess Arunima Rane. I was reading the book and Shams is a character in it, who is friends with Rumi. I wanted the song to be in Urdu or Hindi, not my strong suits, and so I put up a story on Instagram. Rane replied and I sent her a few dialogues and the gist of the book. She replied with a couplet and I composed it," she says, adding that she is now also broadening her focus to rap.

On January 12 and 13, 2 pm onwards
At JioGarden, G block,BKC.
Log on to spokenfest.com
Cost Rs 899

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