December began on a musical note with the Kolkata Winter Music Festival on Sarat Banerjee Road near Lake Market and Art Café. The road was packed with people who enjoyed some retro music, Usha Uthup’s legendary numbers (she also performed) and Sumit Roy’s Christmas carols. The highlight of the event was some neighbourhood cafes — like Evabrew, Spoonful, Art Cafe and Narumeg along with the organiser Mudar Patherya — coming together to paint the pavements with a riot of colours, the periphery of which has been transformed into a “walk of fame” with names of notable musicians from the city highlighted on it. All we can say is: “We want more.”
Usha Uthup and Sumit Roy sang I Believe in Music. The audience burst into revelry with Usha Uthup’s live songs, like Koi yahan nache nache, Rambha ho ho ho and Hari om hari. Sumit Roy performed a few retro numbers and Christmas carols to kickstart the festive season on the streets. Special mention goes to his rendition of Feliz Navidad.
“I think this is a beautiful initiative because we’re acknowledging people who otherwise may not be known. One of the things about Calcutta is that the city respects people who are performers. They may not be known to the world, but there’s space for acknowledgement,” said actor, motivational speaker and food vlogger Ashish Vidyarthi, who was present with his wife Rupali Barua.
Indian music director and film music composer Debojyoti Mishra
Organiser speak:
“I feel there are many musicians in the city who need a proper space to perform. I think the Lake Market neighbourhood is ideal for it. We’ll use the interim period (until next December) to develop this project and encourage buskers to perform acoustic music each weekend outside cafes and enhance the neighbourhood vibe. I think this event lays down the foundation to build dreams. It’s an event to build a dream on and its unique design is going to be etched in people’s minds,” said Mudar Patherya, event conceptualiser.