Rabindranath Tagore is one of the outstanding literary figures of all times. In sheer quantity of work few writers can equal him. His writings include more than one thousand poems and over two thousand songs in addition to a large number of short stories, novels, dramatic works and essays on religion, education, politics and literature. In a word, his interest embraces every subject which is of interest to man.
Tagore is one of the supreme lyric poets of the world. Sincerity of feeling and vividness of imagery combine with the music of his verse to give us poems that haunt the reader long after the actual words are forgotten. His love poems, in particular, are outstanding in world literature. The fire of earthly passion sublimated into spiritual love has found intense and sustained expression in his love poems. Love that gives strength, rather than cloying sweetness, speaks through these poems.
Our performance is interdisciplinary involving poem, music and artwork. Sohini Basu recited a love poem of Tagore titled “Grihashatru” and the English translation of it. The English poem is called “The Traitor”. That Tagore himself played a significant role in translating his poems is well-known. For more than a decade he almost single-handedly translated his poems. The Tagore song, and “alap”-s in Raga Piloo and Raga Madhuvanti re sung by Barnali Bhattacharya. The artwork is taken from Tagore’s paintings. The editing of the entire programme is done by Pulak Halder.
The project is part of the subtheme Connect not divide.
Author
Sohini Basu
Sohini Basu is a theatre and dance artist for more than two decades. A Nrtiya Prabhakar in Kathak dance (an Indian Classical dance form) and a trained theatre practitioner from Lebedoff School at Russian Cultural Centre, Kolkata, she is now a part of the theatre group, Shudrka Hyderabad. She is also an All India Radio artist in elocution and drama divisions. She has performed in more than 15 stage plays and 20 radio dramas and elocution programmes. Her deepest passion is to find a way to combine my background in Bengali theatre with my current explorations in dance and theatre for social change.
Author
Barnali Bhattacharya
Barnali Bhattacharya learnt different forms of Hindustani (Indian) Vocal Music from Pt Nalini Chakraborty of Hooghly district in India in her formative years. Later she took training from Late Ustad Bhishmadev Bhattacharyya, an illustrious disciple of Ustad Salamat Ali and Nazakat Ali of Shamchurashi gharana (lineage). She also learnt Bengali (one of the Indian languages) Light Music from Shri Paresh Bandyopadhyay , a disciple of Shri Satinath Mukherjee, the great Bengali composer and singer. Barnali passed B. Mus. with distinction from Chandigarh. Currently, she is learning from Pandita Urmi Dasgupta of Kirana gharana who is a disciple of Pt Chinmay Lahiri and doyen of Kirana gharana, Smt Hirabai Barodekar. Barnali has influence of all gharanas in her style which is evident in her Light Classical and Classical Singing. Her approach to music is unbiased one and she amalgams any new material from any gharana in her rendition.
Author
Pulak Halder
Pulak Halder is a visual artist and scenographer. His photographs have been published in several magazines, like “View
Finder”, a journal of the Federation of Indian Photography, ‘Murze’ Arts Mag etc. His works has been exhibited in national and international salons.
Important Solo Exhibitions are:
2011 “Nature’s painting” a macro photography on barks of trees, which depicts the different forms of life at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Gallery, INDIA 2012 “Trace the Heritage” - An Exhibition of Photography to highlight cultural Heritage of Hyderabad at the ICCRart Gallery
2012 “COP 11- Convention of Bio-Diversity” A month-long photo exhibition organized by AP Tourism at State Art Gallery, INDIA
2016 “Nature’s painting” at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (KGAF-16), INDIA
2022 Selected for Odyssee artist-in- residency, ACCR, Ministry of Culture, France
Some of his work on Nature’s Painting are permanently displayed at “PrakritiBhavan”, India's one and only Nature Art Museum in Santiniketan, West Bengal.
