LAHORE:
FAIZ Foundation Trust’s Annual ‘Lahore Literary Festival’ (LLF) 2015 began at Alhamra Arts Council today (Friday).
LLF brings together world renowned writers, artists, filmmakers, movie stars and great contemporary literary minds from India, Pakistan, UK and many other countries.
The much awaited mega-event which has attracted over 50,000 people during the three-day long extravaganza, is considered to be one of the biggest literary festivals in Asia.
Ms.Mira Hashmi held conversation with acclaimed Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah about his recently released auto-biography “An Then One Day’ along with director/writer Sarmad Khoosat.
Along with heavy rainfall and flooding out on the streets, the barbed wires and police patrol were also a sight difficult to ignore.
Food stalls by ‘Peeru’s’ were arranged, and Rafi Peer had an exhibition display of decorations, framed posters of Theatre and Puppetry and truck art frames.Book publications ranging from ‘The last word’ to ‘Jumhoori’organized book stalls with a stupendous variety and flavour, adding the free ‘bookmarks’ with valuable quotes as cherry on top.
“There were so many people here that the gates had to be closed at one point.Security conditions are so heavy here; people have parked their cars in other plazas as the crowd turned up more than expected,” says Umair Mansoor, Manager of ‘The Last Word’ at the Upper Mall Branch. “I was most excited to see Naseeruddin shah sir, as I am a huge fan of his.”
The Police force claimed that the security conditions were to continue for the next couple of days.
On the second day, Dr. Ali Hashmi will be launching his English translation of the widely popular Urdu short story collection ‘Qaim Deen’. FFT Chairperson Mrs.Salima Hashmi will be at the launch of her book ‘The Eye Still Seeks: Contemporary Art from Pakistan’. Mrs Hashmi will also be in conversation with Faiza Butt, the London-based Pakistani artist along with novelist and writer Kamila Shamsie. The session is titled ‘We Are All Stardust: An Artist’s Journey’.
On the third day, FFT Trustee Mr.Adeel Hashmi will be in conversation with Kashmiri author and screenwriter Basharat Peer whose maiden film ‘Haider’ (directed by Vishal Bhardwaj) was recently released to great acclaim along with writer and critic Sarwat Ali. The session will be moderated by novelist and musician Ali Sethi and is titled ‘Faiz: Kuch ishq kiya kuch kaam kiya’.
