Debojyoti Mishra’s musical theatre on Salil Chowdhury staged in San Francisco

Music composer Debojyoti Mishra was legendary musician Salil Chowdhury’s long-time assistant and a companion on his musical journey. As a curtain raiser for the latter’s birth centenary in 2024, Debojyoti recently conducted a musical theatre performance at the Bangla Mela in the Bay City of San Francisco.

The 40 minute production, named , was written by Debojyoti. He has also penned the screenplay and arranged the music.The drama depicts Chowdhury’s journey from Assam's tea plantations to Mumbai. Some of his evergreen classics such as found a place in the play. Artistes also impersonated musical greats such as Lata Mangeshkar, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Jharua and Sandhya Mukhopadhyay as a part of the performance.

Directed by Anindya Chakraborty, the dance segments were choreographed by Chandreyi Mukherjee, Shijhini Gupta and Dalia Sen. The play featured actors Sabyasachi Basu as Salil Chowdhury, Sayini Roy as Jharua, Chandreyi Mukherjee as Lata Mangeshkar, Pinaki Mukherjee as Raj Kapoor and Chaplin and Anirban Maiti as Chhobi Biswas to name a few.

Talking about the play, Debojyoti Mishra shared, "The musical play based on Salil Chpwdhury’s was a sudden idea. Dalia Chatterjee Sen from San Francisco was immediately intrigued by the thought when she learnt about this and thought of this production. The production will travel back home, to Kolkata, and is being planned in a big way. This, as of my knowledge, is the first musical theater based on his life."