A Chaupaal to celebrate poetry and music

A group of artists in Mumbai have come together to celebrate the essence of words and sound resonating through poetry and music. They organize a Chaupaal every month which is a cultural, non-commercial coming together of people with a different theme each time. Various eminent personalities from the fields of literature, theater, film, music and other various art forms have been regular performers and audience to this program.
The weekend saw the monthly Chaupaal being organised at Andheri with Desh-Dhwani, a fusion of modern music and powerful classic poetry by the likes of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Ram Prasad Bismil, Alama Iqbal, Kavi Isuri, Harivansh Rai Bachhan, Dushyant Kumar, D L Rai and Salil Verma-Yogesh Gaur in the form of choir singing.This show was conceptualized and directed by Shridhar Nagraj.

All these pieces of poetry by renowned poets played an important role in mass-movement during struggle of Indian Independence and the times followed. The aim of this concept was to bring this amazing content in most appealing form to celebrate the essence and importance of Independence and make it reach people.
Scripted and presented by Ila Joshi for Pratidhwani Music which collaborated with Chutiir Paathshala for which Piloo Vidyarthi and Monalisa Mukherji managed the training and coordination with kids - Yuvna Dutta, Oishi De, Danika Saha, Aarsha Mukherji, Abhijoy Gupta and Aditya Mohan Dhur and Monalisa Mukherji who were also a part of the performing team.
Accompanying them were Mayukh Sarkar on guitar, Akshay Jadhav on tabla and Bhaskar Jyoti Das on percussion. Among the singers were Mridul Ghosh, Geet Sagar, Sudhanshu Shome, Amrita Talukder, Poorvi Tonpay, Sheena Thakur, Chandreyee Chand, Pankaj Dixit, Abhishek Nagraj and Punarvasu Malviya.