Ekela Kon Pothik Tumi (held at Uttam Mancha recently) was an ode to sepa­ra­tion thoughtfully conceived by Shyamali Acharjya. The highlight of the evening was the story of Sahir Ludhianvi and Amrita Pritam, narrated artfully by Acharjya and Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee. It left an indelible mark. The occasional support to the songs by De­bayan Mazumdar (esraj) and Rupak Mukherjee (flu­te) added poignance. Jayati Chakraborty’s in­tro­spective “Mone ki didha re­khe gele” and Suman Bhat­ta­char­ya’s “Udashini beshe” are examples. Chakraborty struck a melan­cholic, yet euphoric, note in her honey-laden voice in songs like “Tumi kon bhangonero pathe”. Bhattacharya, though, spaces out his lines in a way that makes the ends seem incomplete.

Chatterjee’s reading of “Eka eka jhimjhime raat” was pleasingly unsentimen­tal and his rendition of “Jo­kh­on eshechile” had verve in the higher notes. Mazumdar and Mukherjee added unobtrusive inputs throughout on the esraj and the flute, respectively. The latter’s solo flourish during “Tumi toh shei jabei chole” buoyed the pathos of the song.