Celebs musical evening

If the celeb turnout at the final day of Pancha Janya Sankha festival was anything to go by, it sure spoke of the huge interest levels Kolkata has in listening to Nazrulgeeti.
Not a single seat was left vacant and unlike other programmes where the audience usually trickles down after the clock strikes nine, the auditorium was literally choc-a-bloc till the end when Bonosree Sengupta, Dr Binata Moitra and Sanjoy Chakrabarty felicitated all the artistes.
Be it the documentary on Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sreela Mazumdar, Bratati Bandopadhyay, Madhumanti Maitra and Shubho Dasgupta’s recitation or the rendition by Ustad Rashid Khan, Haimanti Shukla and Kaushiki Desikan — the audience was in for a musical treat. Curiosity over whether the Ustad would pronounce the Bengali lyrics properly soon gave in to appreciation. Kaushiki Desikan’s rendition also drew a huge round of applause. Husband Parthasarathi, who was in the audience, was constantly shuttling between the auditorium and the greenroom. The reason: Partha’s baby, Rishith, had fallen asleep in the greenroom while Kaushiki was performing on stage. “I liked the way Kaushiki expressed the emotions through her songs. I’m also fond of Shubhankar Bhaskar’s tonal quality,” Partha said.
As for Subhhankar himself, the singer was floored by Kaushiki’s recital. “Rashid bhai er sathe bosha maney ekta sahosher byapar. I’ve tried my level best. Tonyda (sarod player Debojyoti Bose) said he has loved my singing of Jare haath diye mala dite parina. Srikantoda (singer Srikanto Acharya) liked Bidae shodhya ashilo. Kaushiki was amazing. She was so restrained in using her classical expertise and brought out the true essence of songs,” Subhankar said.
Raghab Chatterjee, who was also in the audience, showered praise over Haimanti Shukla’s rendition. “As a whole, I loved the presentation. I was floored by Bratatidi’s recitation. There was a novelty in the combined effort of Ustadji and Haimantidi. There was so much of freshness when they sang Shono bashi te dake in raag Malkauns. Since Kaushiki is classically trained, she had a lot to offer. But somehow, the soul was missing in her rendition. I had more expectations from Subhankar’s songs. Unfortunately, Subhankar and Sampa didn’t impress me a lot. The live musicians could have done better too,” Raghab said.
Meanwhile, Shouvik Dasgupta is happy with the response. “I am planning to host three dance dramas based on Tagore’s works. Shyama, Chitrangada and Chandalika are the chosen texts. Dr Vyjayanthimala Bali has consented to do Chandalika,” Dasgupta said.
Seems like there’s a lot more in store for Kolkata in the coming months.
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