Even as the musical fraternity is divided over the issue of accompanists being overshadowed by the main performers in a concert, a recital by Ajoy Chakraborty at Madhusudan Mancha on February 11 presented quite different a picture. A soiree organised by the Doordarshan Staff Association saw Chakraborty leaving adequate room for improvisational essays for his accompanists besides singing numbers set to tune by them and accompanists playing their heart out.

Chakraborty was singing his favourite Bengali numbers. There were some venerable compositions by Jnan Prakash Ghosh and Jatileshwar Mukhopadhyay. As the requests for Nazrulgeeti poured in, the singer obliged with a colourful treatment of Paradeshi megh. Chakraborty laid bare the melodic canvas of the numbers, improvised freely in his attempt to bring out the essence of the lyric. Seldom does he overstretch. Thus without sounding forced upon, the songs had a refreshing feel during the recital. While singing Ghosh’s springtime number Jagilo ki chhanda, he engaged tabla accompanist Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay into playing a riveting saath-sangat and the trital adaptation from classical tradition received a fresh coat of paint. Chakraborty followed it up with Mukhopadhyay’s own composition Majhe majhe kena dekha hay, guitar accompanist Buddhadeb Gangopadhyay’s Ami jege thaki and harmonium accompanist Jayanta Sarkar’s Sawan rate kheya parapare. All delightful numbers rendered with care and concern. The Sarkar composition saw the singer probing inside the melodic structures and extracting newer ones. Such a performance is more than welcome.

It was preceded by an elocution recital by Bratati Bandyopadhyay. The artiste has evolved a lot since this reviewer last heard her a few years back. The diction is in place, but her delivery and approach has softened a lot. The background scores have ceased to spoil the audio feast. Only the choice remains largely predictable. The usual Tagore, Nazrul apart; she continues to enjoy the over-the-top populist rhetoric of Subho Dasgupta and Subodh Sarkar. Poetry of the Bangladeshi poets has also been incorporated into the oeuvre. The overall effect was of an overdose of sentiment, satire and idealism. Even the juvenile verses could not escape the sarcasm emanating from yawning linguistic chasm in the school education system.