Tagore singers will forever carry a part of Suchitra Mitra

KOLKATA: Her voice and her singing wasa fountain of life force. Her music blended the exuberance of spring andtranquillity of a saint. Surely there's no death for such a force? So the lastleaf may not have fallen on Monday. From Pramita Mullick and Swagatalaksmi toSounak Chatterjee and Manoj Murali Nair, Rabindrasangeet exponents who cameafter her will forever carry a part of Suchitra Mitra in them.Shehas left a host of students, many directly trained by her, many more who'velearnt from listening to her. In fact, "whoever sings Tagore songs should learnfrom her about their melody and enunciation, scansion and modulation," saysPramita Mullick who knew the legendary singer from childhood as her parents'friend. "Instead of being a fashion, Rabindra Sangeet should becomea passion," Suchitra Mitra taught her to believe."She herself lovedto sing, and when she was in the mood, she'd sing 30 in a stream without beingconcerned about her concert the next day," Mullick recalls. She wouldunfailingly dazzle with her open-throated singing in a confident voice that manythought was her own style. "Far from it, it was the trueRabindra-Dinendra-Santideb gayaki," Mullick asserts. "That's how Rabindranathwanted them to be recited, that's how Suchitramasi recited them, that's how theyshould continue to be sung."" Every song has an image, a chhobi inits heart: try to picture that, and to portray that to your listeners,' she hadurged." Pramita Mullick has made that the mantra of her singing.ForSounak Chatterjee, she was the first access to Rabindranath when, at five, hewas mesmerised by Bela gelo tomar patho cheye playing on her LP. "It evoked apicture of sundown, of birds seeking their nests, shepherds retracing footstepshome... I still can't get over that image of peace and submission," he says.Later, when he heard Swapan parer daak shun-echhi, her delivery and stress onthe word shei' in the last line became a revelation. "We can't improvise on themelody of Tagore, it's pre-set. So we should think about the stresses andpauses, the pronunciation of consonants and vowels that can create an indelibleimprint, I learnt from her," says the singer who has recorded Sanatan O NutanRabindranath."And then her body language: she was so smart and somodern!" says Sounak who emulated her "consciously or unconsciously." With hisgrounding in raga music, he noticed that "Tagore songs in the Dhrupad-mouldideally suited her bold, emancipated singing as did the Baul-anga songs."Raised in Santiniketan, Manoj Murali Nair met the legend to seek heradvise before some concerts. "I learnt from her how to respect the arts, theculture of our nation." She would say, "Why sing Tagore from a book? He shouldreside in our heart!" She surely carried Rabindranath in her heart, and so songslike Ekada tumi priye acquire a new dimension in her recital. "That's why Inever had the courage to sing Krishnakali - until she urged me to. I listened toher very closely, and for the first time I recorded it last year, without music,like her."For Swagata Lakshmi, whose father was trained in the classical music of Pandit Ratanjankar, "she was partly Rabindranath (along with Debabrata Biswas, Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Maya Sen)." She got to know Rabindra gayaki through Suchitra Mitra, whose "bold and transparent singing followed the notations, yet transcended it when she had internalised the compositions."Swagata Lakshmi considers the icon her guru althoughshe wasn't her disciple. "Her exemplary discipline needs to be emulated," shesays in the context of the experiments going on since the copyright was liftedin 2001. "We sing the national anthem the way it was composed because distortingit would be criminal. Can we, then, distort his other composi-tions at will?"asks the singer whose Gitabitan' was released by SuchitraMitra.Today, when everyone's lamenting her passing, all youngartistes should be more committed and responsible, theyenjoin.