Lucknow & Kolkata: Centuries of exile, art & community to be spotlight at Sanatkada 2026 | Lucknow News
Lucknow: From Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s exile and the rise and fall of Chhota Lucknow in Kolkata to the arrival of Bengali communities in Lucknow and shared creative lineages, this connection has travelled across centuries and continues to grow.Come January 3, starting with its curtain raiser, the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival will bring forward the enduring relationship between the two cities and the many journeys, memories and creative exchanges that bind them.
Talking to TOI, artist Soumyadeep Roy said, “The festival has themes related to Lucknow every year and for almost the last one year MSLF was planning on the Calcutta and Lucknow connection. This year, Sanatkada finally decided to go ahead with the topic and the team has gone through extensive research. The team visited Kolkata twice, in July and in Oct, and met all the people who have deep connections with Lucknow. I visited Lucknow again in Oct as well and it is finally taking shape in the form of the festival.” The curtain-raiser for the festival happened in Kolkata on Dec 13 and 14 at Studio Bari Kolkata. There were performances and lectures — including one by sarod maestro Ustad Irfan Muhammad on Dec 13. He’s considered the last khalifa of the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharana and lives in Kolkata. There were also lectures and discussions by Dr Neeta Das, and GM Kapur on the shared architectural legacies of the two cities, a presentation on Saleem Kidwai interviews on Begum Akhtar by Shreya Ila Anasuya followed by a vinyl listening session, walkthrough of the Shahrashob exhibition, a heritage walk and a presentation by the Sanatkada team from Lucknow. The forthcoming ‘Raabta Lucknow Calcutta Ka’ event, set to unfold at Safed Baradari, Raja Ram Pal Singh Park, and Amir-ud-Daulah Library, Qaiser Bagh, from Jan 30 to Feb 3, promises to be a poignant exploration of migration, artistic exchange, and the understated resilience of cultural bonds. According to organisers, MSLF 2026 will turn its lens to the flow of people, crafts, traditions, and ideas that knit Lucknow and Kolkata together. Music, dance, poetry, and food reverberate with this shared heritage. Artisan crafts — zardozi, kite-making, and culinary innovations — show how each city has influenced the other. The festival will showcase living legacies, collaborative projects, migration narratives, and modern cultural expressions that keep this bond alive. The Weaves and Crafts Bazaar will form the heart of the festival, joined this year by an expanded set of venues that reflect the growing scale of MSLF. Along with exhibitions, concerts, conversations and many flavours of Lucknow and Kolkata, the festival now expands further into the Qaiser Bagh complex. Exploring Lucknow’s cinematic heritageCelebrating all that is shared between Lucknow and Kolkata, MSLF 2026 will organise the ‘Shatranj ke Khiladi walk’ to the Residency with historian and documentary filmmaker Eshan Sharma, as part of its curtain raiser celebrations. The walk will be organised on Jan 4 from 9am onwards. Eshan will discuss Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Satyajit Ray’s iconic film that dramatizes the fall of Lucknow in 1856. The two-day film festival kicks off on Jan 3 at Rai Umanath Bali Auditorium, Qaiser Bagh, celebrating iconic films that immortalized Lucknow and the brilliant makers behind these cinematic gems. The programme will explore Awadh’s cinematic landscape, showing how Lucknow’s unique character, history, and aesthetics have inspired some of Indian cinema’s most iconic narratives. It spotlights the lasting threads that run through the city’s fabric, honoring both its opulence and stark realities as captured by visionary filmmakers.
