The much-awaited 13th Edition of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival has dropped its curtains on a concluding day on Sunday, 23rd January 2022. AKLF2022 has marked the beginning of the Centenary year celebrations for the iconic Oxford Bookstores. The three-day literary extravaganza had witnessed a guest lineup of more than 50 authors, journalists, influencers, thinkers, poets, international best-selling writers, and Bollywood actors. AKLF2022 had focussed on themes like fiction, non-fiction, gastronomy, mental and physical health, poetry, politics, current affairs, parenthood, adult literature and others, through a total of 24 interactive sessions on the virtual platform over the last three days.
The three-day literary extravaganza witnessed first day sessions on various divergent topics ranging from The Myth in Mythology by Devdutt Pattanaik; Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize Shortlist Announcement with Ms. Priti Paul, Author, and Columnist Shobhaa De, Dr. Shashi Tharoor among other dignitaries; Aro Food Kahini – Kolkata’s Confluence of Cultural Capital with Indrajit Lahiri and Mir Afsar Ali; “A Life in Abundance for All” – A FEED India Initiative by Vikas Khanna in conversation with veteran journalist Ruchira Gupta.
The second day had sessions like, Unfiltered with Vir Sanghvi and Seema Goswami; Shobhaa De’s Lockdown Liasons which consists of stories that show how Covid-19 is affecting the hearts of hundreds of people as they struggle to make sense of altered circumstances, of the new normal that will emerge in a post-Covid world; An enlightening session themed around Aparna Sen’s father Chidananda Dasgupta who was an Indian filmmaker, film critic, a film historian and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society with Satyajit Ray in 1947; “Raj Kapoor- The Master At Work”, a thoughtful memoir by veteran filmmaker Rahul Rawail who goes back to his days spent in R.K. Studios where he was nurtured and taught to handle the ropes of filmmaking from the Master himself-Raj Kapoor; “Lockdown liasons” – Love in the Time of Covid by famous author and columnist Shobhaa De.
The third day witnessed sessions like “Candid and Compelling – Stories I Must Tell” with Kabir Bedi in conversation with Advaita Kala; “Celebrity Dads, Bollywood and More” with Tusshar Kapoor and Jugal Hansraj; The Other Language: Future of Translation with Irène Frain and Arunava and Institut Français India was a partner for this particular session.
