With gaddas and gajras, mehfils are having a moment

On a recent evening in Mumbai, a roomful of people sat cross-legged on white gaddas in a crumbling cotton mill that once smelled of industrial damp but now had hints of mogra and attar wafting through.

Chandelier floor lamps stood where massive iron spindles once did, and carpets hung where powerlooms rattled.
There were no strobes, barricades or crowds craning for a glimpse of someone very small and famous on a very large LED screen. Instead, about 150 people sat close enough to watch director

Vishal Bhardwaj

drift between cinema, music and verse, pausing in between to tell stories about feeling intimidated during his first recording with

Lata Mangeshkar

or attempting the jazz number ‘An Evening in Paris’ on harmonium and tabla.