The city witnessed the third session of KCC Offstage — a session featuring unique concerts directed by Nabarun Bose (music director and musician) at Kolkata Centre for Creativity in Anandapur, EM Bypass. This time the concert featured Silajit and Prabuddha Banerjee and the duo belted out some fun songs. The first session of KCC Offstage had Timir Biswas, who discussed his creative process; the second session featured Anjan Dutt and the third session was all about re-arranging and re-interpreting some of Silajit’s songs. The unplugged session blended two different formats and approaches of creativity and recreated songs like Ja pakhi urte dilam toke, Jhinti Tuyi brishti hote partis, Guru ki upay bolo na, Bajlo chhutir ghonta and Jol phoring, among other tunes.
“KCC has created a fabulous space for artistes who belong to different genres and mediums, ranging from theatre, music, dance, poetry, and other modes. The holistic cultural space is commendable! Because they’re offering small spaces for different programmes, we’re being able to experiment. I could think beyond my regular line-up and do something unique and not just stick to what I’m popular for. We’ve got an audience who wants to chat with us and listen to us in an intimate space. This Offstage session is something of that sort, that’s creating a unique environment and it’ll develop even more. There should be more cultural hubs like this,” said Silajit.
Nabarun Bose, Prabuddha Banerjee
“KCC Offstage promises a unique interactive experience where the audience gets a sneak peek into the mind and creative process of the artiste. The name ‘Offstage’ suggests the semi-informal nature of the show where the line between the audience and the artiste is consciously blurred. The idea is to promote creative discourse and in the process create a much stronger connection between the artiste and the audience at a more personal level. As the curator of the event, it is indeed quite exciting to bring forward some of the best artistes from the city in this format, each with their distinctive styles and perspectives and observe how every audience member goes back home inspired, and filled with creative ideas. The third edition of Offstage with Silajit was particularly special for me because Prabuddha and I got to re-arrange and re-interpret some of the classic Silajit songs in a very different kind of musical format,” said Nabarun Bose.
“KCC Offstage has been organising interesting concerts curated by Nabarun Bose. So, I readily accepted when the offer came to perform with my friend and colleague Silajit. Our musical styles and approaches are very different, which made this project even more interesting. We experimented with tonal combinations of various instruments and I look forward to such unplugged curated concerts,” said Prabuddha Banerjee.
