Celebrating jugni in sufiyana andaaz

'Ishq karne wale kabhi chup nahi baithte’, a line from the musical dance show O Jugni Punjab Di, which recently took place in Delhi, perfectly captures the essence of the show. Jugni, according to the show’s choreographer and Kathak exponent, Manjari Chaturvedi, is a “free-spirited woman who doesn’t have any bounds. Woh kahin bhi ja sakti hai, woh kuch bhi keh sakti hai.”
The mystical dance musical included the stories of Heer-Ranjha, Sohni-Mahiwal, Baba Bulleh Shah, Baba Farid, and compositions like Tere Ishq Nachaya, Dama Dam Mast Qalandar, and Ni Main Jaana Jogi De Naal. The dance, performed by Manjari, was set to Sufiqawallis by Ustad Ranjhan Ali and was accompanied by stories of jugni narrated by Punjabi actors Jasvir Kumar and Balkar Sidhu.


While this was Manjari’s first performance in Delhi since the pandemic struck, for some sitting in the audience, the event was the first offline show that they attended after a gap of two years. Music therapist Manvi Siddharth and actor Charu Shankar said, “This is the first time we have come to see a performance in two years. We’re really enjoying getting back to attending live performances.”


‘Ishq is the only important thing today’
Through the performance, Manjari tried to highlight the importance of love. She said, “The only thing important today is ishq. Woh chaahe apne rab se karo, ya bagal wale bande se karo (laughs). To each their own.” Manjari also tried to break the stereotypes surrounding Punjabi music and how it is typically associated with loud beats. “When I started reading Bulleh Shah, Baba Farid and Sultan Bahu, I thought, ‘This is Punjab’. It is so unfortunate that people think that any dhinchak type of music is Punjabi,” she said, adding, “We feel that it is not that people don’t want to listen to traditional compositions, but that we are not giving it to them. This performance is a way of giving them that.”
‘Wanted to make the show more accessible to the people of Delhi’
While the programme’s original script is written in Punjabi, the showmakers translated it in Hindi for the Hindi-speaking audience. Manjari said, “This was done in a way that its Punjabi essence wasn't lost, and at the same time, it was more accessible to the audience of Delhi.”
Talking about the show, former diplomat and author Bhaichand Patel said, “I enjoyed it thoroughly. Even though I’m not a Punjabi, I understood it easily.”


- Sunaina Jain