Jashn-e-Rekhta

Piyush Mishra brings his full self to this live Jashn-e-Rekhta session, sharp humour, raw memories, music, poetry, and the kind of honesty that refuses to sound rehearsed.

In this conversation, he opens up about love, heartbreak, and why today’s fast-moving Gen Z relationships often miss the patience and depth of old-school romance.

He speaks about acting as imagination, not just technique, and shares hard-earned truths from his early Mumbai days, when survival, writing, theatre, and cinema were all part of the same struggle.

The discussion moves from NSD and the myth of instant fame to the emotional cost of chasing art in a city like Mumbai.

Piyush Mishra reflects on guilt, ego, Vipassana, alcoholism, truth, and the personal battles that shaped his voice as an artist.

He also recalls Anurag Kashyap, Kay Kay Menon, and the creative integrity behind Black Friday.

Alongside the conversation, the session carries powerful musical moments and memories connected to Ek Bagal Mein Chand Hoga, Aarambh Hai Prachand, and Husna.

From Bhagat Singh and Faiz Ahmad Faiz to Partition pain and the loneliness of the artist, this episode is a rare mix of laughter, confession, music, and literary fire.

Listen to Piyush Mishra at his most unfiltered, poetic, funny, wounded, and alive.

Javed Akhtar joins Saif Mahmood for a thoughtful and deeply relevant conversation on Urdu, secularism, language politics, and the cultural history of India.

In this live session, they unpack how Hindi and Urdu grew from the same soil, sharing the same streets, emotions, and literary traditions long before politics tried to divide them.

Javed Akhtar speaks candidly about why languages should never be tied to religion, and why Urdu belongs as much to India’s cultural identity as Hindi does.

He reflects on how younger audiences are rediscovering Urdu poetry through Devanagari script, even while traditional Urdu writing slowly declines.

One of the most powerful moments of the discussion comes when he explains secularism in the simplest possible way.

Not as a slogan, not as performance, but as something natural and essential, “like oxygen.”

The conversation moves through literature, identity, public discourse, coexistence, and the emotional connection people still carry with language across generations.

Saadat Hasan Manto was not a writer who allowed anyone to stay comfortable.

In this powerful conversation from Jashn-e-Rekhta, filmmaker Nandita Das and actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui join RJ Sayema to speak about bringing Manto’s life, mind and contradictions to the screen.

Nawazuddin reflects on playing Manto and the strange after-effect of carrying his honesty into real life. Nandita Das explains why the film stays rooted in the years around Partition, from 1946 to 1950, and how Manto’s questions around identity, religion, nationalism, women and censorship continue to feel unsettlingly current.

The conversation also goes behind the scenes of recreating 1940s Lahore, holding a creative line, and understanding Manto’s writing as something plain, sharp and impossible to ignore.

For anyone interested in Urdu literature, cinema, Partition stories, or the life of Saadat Hasan Manto, this is a rare and deeply revealing listen.

What happens when two of South Asia’s most loved actors speak about Urdu, not as a language of nostalgia, but as a living part of performance, memory, and identity?

In this rare conversation from Jashn-e-Rekhta Dubai, Saba Qamar and Imran Abbas join Adeel Hashmi for a deeply honest discussion on Urdu, cinema, acting, and the changing sound of storytelling.

They speak about the sanctity of words, the discipline of pronunciation, and why language can completely change the emotional weight of a scene.

Imran Abbas shares how his command over Urdu became a strength across India and Pakistan, while Saba Qamar reflects on performance, vulnerability, and the beauty of leaving some emotions unfinished on screen.

Together, they explore why many young actors are drifting away from linguistic depth, and what that means for films, dramas, and culture at large.

The conversation also looks at how OTT platforms and newer writing styles have shifted dialogue from poetic expression to everyday realism. But is that evolution, or are we losing something precious?

Some nights are not just heard. They are felt.

In this Grand Mushaira from the Jashn-e-Rekhta stage, some of India’s most loved poets come together for an unforgettable evening of Urdu poetry, emotion, wit, reflection, and live mehfil energy.

From the first sher to the final applause, the atmosphere carries the warmth of a packed audience listening, reacting, smiling, and sometimes falling completely silent.

Hosted with grace and command by Azhar Iqbal, the evening moves through many shades of poetry.

Ajm Shakari brings ghazals filled with heartbreak, pride, and emotional intensity.

Nausha Israr speaks of homeland, hope, distance, and belonging.

Shik Kaifi delivers sharp, memorable lines that make the audience pause and smile.

Hilal Fareed brings poetry with a social and political pulse.

Then comes Javed Akhtar, whose words cut through noise and reach straight into thought.

The mehfil closes with the timeless elegance of Waseem Barelvi, reminding everyone why the ghazal still holds such power across generations.

This episode is for anyone who loves shayari, ghazals, Urdu adab, live mushairas, and poetry that speaks about love, loneliness, truth, society, language, memory, and the delicate relationship between words and meaning.

What happens when a new generation of Urdu poets takes the stage and turns heartbreak, anxiety, love, loneliness, and identity into unforgettable shayari?

In this powerful live mushaira from Jashn-e-Rekhta, host Jani Lakhnavi brings together some of the most exciting young voices in contemporary Urdu poetry.

Featuring Sarmad Khan, Kashif Syed, Saqib Amraz, Sharjeel Ansari, Qamar Abbas Qamar, Saif Irfan, Bhavna Srivastava, Syed Ahmad and more, this session captures the pulse of modern sher-o-shayari.

These poets speak the language of today’s youth. They write about wounded hearts, quiet battles, mental health, unfinished love, and the strange beauty of surviving modern life.

Lines like “Dil buridaon se mohabbat thi, aabla paon se mohabbat thi” and “Siskati rut ko mehakta gulab kar dunga” remind us why poetry still has the power to stop a crowd, stir memory, and heal something within.

This is a glimpse into the future of Urdu poetry, where tradition meets today’s emotions and young poets carry the tehzeeb forward in their own fearless voice.

In this live talk at Jashn-e-Rekhta, Swami Oma The Akk speaks of Urdu not as a language alone, but as a maashooq.

Something intimate, fragrant, elusive, and deeply felt. Through the poetry of Meer, Ghalib, and Iqbal, he opens three ways of seeing life.

Meer becomes the voice of loss, surrender, memory, and the pain that softens the soul.

Iqbal stands for courage, becoming, and the pull of the future.

Ghalib lives in the present. Restless, witty, rebellious, and brave enough to argue with the divine.

The talk moves beautifully between ishq, fanaa, tajalli, sukoon, grief, hope, and inner fire, while the Yamuna becomes a powerful metaphor for damaged beauty that still flows with meaning.

Swami Oma The Akk also reflects on how Rekhta has opened Urdu to wider audiences through Devanagari, Roman script, and digital access.

What if Urdu is not just a language, but an entire way of seeing the world?

In this live conversation, Dr. Arfa Sayeda Zehra reveals why Urdu carries far more than words. It carries adaab, memory, poetry, emotion, and a complete civilizational ethos.

Joined by Saif Mahmood and Moin Mir at Jashn-e-Rekhta, she speaks about why Urdu belongs to everyone, not to one religion, one nation, or one class.

From the grace of saying aap to the lost art of listening, from Ghalib and Meer to the crisis of modern conversation, this episode opens up the deeper soul of the language in a way that feels urgent even today.

In this episode at Jashn-e-Rekhta, we explore the timeless poetry and lasting legacy of Meer Taqi Meer, the poet many revere as Khuda-e-Sukhan.

Through an engaging conversation featuring Farhat Ehsas, Shafey Kidwai, and Sarfaraz Khalid, this session looks at how Meer shaped the emotional language of Urdu poetry and gave the ghazal a voice that still feels alive today.

The episode reflects on Meer’s extraordinary journey, his gift for turning everyday language into great literature, and the deep emotional current, or rawani, that makes his poetry unforgettable.

It also draws a fascinating comparison between Meer and Mirza Ghalib, placing feeling and thought side by side in the history of Urdu verse.

From his masnavis to Zikr-e-Meer, and from the fall of Delhi to the rise of Rekhta, this is a rich and rewarding listen for anyone who wants to understand the soul, softness, and truth of classical Urdu poetry.

Can you really tell the difference between great poetry and bad poetry?

In this fascinating live session from Jashn-e-Rekhta, Dr. Salman Akhtar shares 4 signs of bad poetry and explains why some verses may sound poetic, but still fail to leave a mark.

With humour, honesty, and deep literary insight, he speaks about shallow expression, damaged language, weak thought, and the loss of rhythm in modern writing.

Referencing Maulana Hali and Dr. Zakir Hussain, Dr. Salman Akhtar shows that poetry is not just about words.

It is about depth, musicality, emotional truth, and adab. This episode is a practical and thought-provoking guide for anyone who loves Urdu shayari, wants to improve their writing, or simply wishes to understand what gives poetry its lasting power.