On Sunday evening, I was transported to Bhadralok and Boston in that order thanks to a Rabindra Sangeet and Adhunik Gaan concert. While my fascination for Rabindra Sangeet goes back to school days in Hyderabad, it was in Boston that it exploded thanks to "Amra Kojon". All those memories came back as I got engrossed in the singing of Samik Pal.
Samik started the session with "mamo joubano nikunje gahe pakhi" and when he came to "jaago jaago" the voice soared like a "pakhi" in full flight. The program was advertised as "Char Kobir Gaan" covering Tagore, Atul Prasad, DL Roy, Rajanikanto but a Nazrul Geeti shudn't be considered out of place. And the choice was impeccable with "patho cholite, jodi chokite".
"tai tomar anondo amar por" was the next number. The heavy Hemanto flavor finally gave way with "O keno eto shundori holo", a perennial Manna Babu favorite. Samik talked about magnificent rythm of Salilda and announced "no prizes for guessing" as he started singing "duronto ghornir".
By the time the turn of Monihar came, my excitement got the better of me. I started singing along "ki jeno go dekheche amay..." and caught of the attention of the gentleman sitting next to me. As the singer gave clues (in bengali)to identify the next song; the gentleman said something to the effect " do you recognised this". I didn't and just smiled and shook my head without admitting that I understand only a little bit of Bengali :)
V.Balsara's orchestration got a special mention in Talat's "jetha ramdhanu uThe heshe". Meanwhile famarish'es started coming in, and a few pieces of paper were handed over to the singer. On looking at the first one the singer refused saying "it was out of syllabus". I cudn't figure it out as the original scope of the program was already expanded to cover other Adhunik Poets.
Satinath Mukherjee's "Amar e gaane swapno jadi ane" and Hemant's "keno duur e thako" followed. Subir Sen's irresistible "noy thakle aro kichukon" was next on the agenda.
It has to be noted that while Samik sang songs of wide variety of singers, he came close to matching their voices. The exception was "mono dilo na bodhu" but then again Sachin Deb Burman's inimitable style and voice are very hard to reproduce.
Hemanto flavor returned with "tumar bhubhone" and "tapur topur brishti jhore". Hemanta & Tarun Majumdar's association was recounted before the latter rendition. Shyamal Mitro's "Sediner Sona Jhora Sandhya" by Shyamal Mitro and Hemant's "ai raat tomar amar" rounded off the incredible evening.
It will take some time before I get out of this hangover. While I am at it, let me wish "shubo noboborsho" to all of you.
Samik started the session with "mamo joubano nikunje gahe pakhi" and when he came to "jaago jaago" the voice soared like a "pakhi" in full flight. The program was advertised as "Char Kobir Gaan" covering Tagore, Atul Prasad, DL Roy, Rajanikanto but a Nazrul Geeti shudn't be considered out of place. And the choice was impeccable with "patho cholite, jodi chokite".
"tai tomar anondo amar por" was the next number. The heavy Hemanto flavor finally gave way with "O keno eto shundori holo", a perennial Manna Babu favorite. Samik talked about magnificent rythm of Salilda and announced "no prizes for guessing" as he started singing "duronto ghornir".
By the time the turn of Monihar came, my excitement got the better of me. I started singing along "ki jeno go dekheche amay..." and caught of the attention of the gentleman sitting next to me. As the singer gave clues (in bengali)to identify the next song; the gentleman said something to the effect " do you recognised this". I didn't and just smiled and shook my head without admitting that I understand only a little bit of Bengali :)
V.Balsara's orchestration got a special mention in Talat's "jetha ramdhanu uThe heshe". Meanwhile famarish'es started coming in, and a few pieces of paper were handed over to the singer. On looking at the first one the singer refused saying "it was out of syllabus". I cudn't figure it out as the original scope of the program was already expanded to cover other Adhunik Poets.
Satinath Mukherjee's "Amar e gaane swapno jadi ane" and Hemant's "keno duur e thako" followed. Subir Sen's irresistible "noy thakle aro kichukon" was next on the agenda.
It has to be noted that while Samik sang songs of wide variety of singers, he came close to matching their voices. The exception was "mono dilo na bodhu" but then again Sachin Deb Burman's inimitable style and voice are very hard to reproduce.
Hemanto flavor returned with "tumar bhubhone" and "tapur topur brishti jhore". Hemanta & Tarun Majumdar's association was recounted before the latter rendition. Shyamal Mitro's "Sediner Sona Jhora Sandhya" by Shyamal Mitro and Hemant's "ai raat tomar amar" rounded off the incredible evening.
It will take some time before I get out of this hangover. While I am at it, let me wish "shubo noboborsho" to all of you.
No comments:
Post a Comment