Students of CE Block-based music school Sangeetalaya recently hosted a cultural programme at the local block community hall.
The first part was exclusively for children. Surjodeep Roy played Basanto eshey gechhe on the keyboard and there was also a chorus of Tomar duar kholar dhwani. “We connected with this song as we too are throwing open our doors and going out into the world after two years,” said Supriti Jana of Class VII.
The youngest student Ahona Moitra, 5, sang Amar chhotto pakhi Chandana and was accompanied on the tabla by Amita Sarkar. "Initially I was worried about my performance as we had no offline show for so long. But this show has boosted my confidence,” said Sarkar of her gender stereotype-breaking turn as a percussionist.
Two students, Sudakhina Sinha and Birat Singh, were felicitated for receiving over 90 per cent marks in their music examinations. “I scored 92 in the sixth year Rabindrasangeet exam under Prachin Kala Kendra of Chandigarh,” smiled Birat, before presenting the Rabindrasangeet Amar praner manush achhey prane.
A classical section presented Tagore songs based on ragas Miya ki Malhar, Patdeep and Desh. Another section, titled Ek Sur Ek Gaan, had students sing the Hindi and Bengali versions of the same songs, composed by legendary composers. “This school was started by our teacher Arpita Roy in 1985 and we have over 80 students now,” said Urmila Sen, who sang as well as anchored the show.
Roy admitted that online classes were tough and lacked perfection. “When the situation improved, the students themselves pushed for offline classes and today we are proud to be in a position to hold a stage show,” she smiled.
Bharati Kanjilal
Balaka at 50
A dancer at the Balaka event
Balaka club’s ushering of the Bengali new year was doubly important for them as this year marks their golden jubilee. So besides cultural programmes, the focus was on reminiscing their past. Leading from the front was minister and MLA Sujit Bose.
“In our boyhood, there was not much difference between Balaka and Sreebhumi clubs except that they were on either side of the Kestopur canal. Sometimes we would even have combined teams,” said Bose, who is chief patron of Balaka Club and the president of Sreebhumi Sporting Club. “This year will mark the golden jubilee of both the clubs and I convey my best wishes for grand celebrations.”
Bose surprised the audience by singing the Manna Dey hit Jibone ki pabona and stayed back when he heard that club members player Sanjib Das Sharma, better known as Bula would be singing too. “I am more used to playing football and would sing only for friends. Today is my first public performance," Bula smiled before presenting two S.D. Burman numbers.
On the list of cultural programmes, there was story-telling by Sudeshna Chakraborty, who narrated Sibram Chakraborty’s Subho Nabobarsho, followed by sarod recitals by Ishaan Ganguly and Srijoy Moitra, the latter accompanied by Subhadra Kalyan on the tabla. Barun Ganguly played Nazrulgeeti on the violin and Biswajit Bhattacharya spoke on the origin of Balaka Club and sang Kishore Kumar numbers.
“We only got a day to rehearse but still went ahead with it as we got to perform after being suffocated at home for two years,” said Amrita Nandi, a Class XII student who danced to folk numbers with Sayantani Mullick and Siyona Raha.
Club president Shaibal Dutt, along with others, distributed saris and mosquito nets to the needy. “Initially the club would focus on football and cricket tournaments but now we perform many social activities round the year too,” he said.
Bharati Kanjilal
Double bill
A scene from Samikaran
To mark the start of their 36th year, township-based theatre group Britya staged two plays at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan recently.
The first was an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco. It was a monologue in the form of public lecture and offered a glimpse into the unfortunate life of Abhijit Majumder, who is oppressed by his domineering wife. Tobacco is but a metaphor and he really talks about his wife.
“We often hear about women’s oppression and harassment but in this play Chekhov uses satire to highlight the opposite scenario,” said Arup Ghosh, who played the role of Abhijit. “This was a challenging role as the character was there was no scope or melodrama and expressions had to be spontaneous.”
The second play Samikaran was about marital discord in the lives of Animesh and his pampered wife Sunetra. “I enjoyed playing this role all the more as I was on stage after a gap of some years,” said Chandra Banerjee, who played the role of
Sunetra Mitra. “Acting is my passion and I’ve been recently been performing in audio plays and short films too.”
Both plays were directed jointly by Bijon Ghosh and Arup Ghosh. Ghosh, who is also the secretary of Britya, said they had wanted to celebrate their 36th year with a two-day theatre festival involving several groups. “But that did not materialise mainly due to the pandemic and financial constraints,” he said. “But we have plans to host more frequent shows this year.”
Bharati Kanjilal
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