If three debutantes can hold fort on their own, one need not worry about the future of Indian classical music. Usually, such spirited efforts fade away in empty halls. But fortunately this didn’t happen on July 1. A sizeable number of listeners, including some renowned musicians, were at Gyan Manch to inspire the vocalists and that is where the success of Brahmapur Sur Murchhana lied. The youngsters’ composure was impressive. Probably the presence of their guru as the harmonium accompanist was the secret and it was evident that Sanjoy Banerjee trained them with honest care. Namami Karmakar’s emotive Bageshri was appealing, Manidipa Sen’s Behag was lucid and Varsha Dhar sang Yaman. Strangely, the vowel taans of each aspirant lacked grains. Banerjee, a disciple of legendary guru A Kanan, could have cast them in different moulds for variety.
Meena Banerjee
Debatosh Sengupta, the head of the Government of India’s photo division, recently presented his Image-2006, an exhibition consisting of beautiful colour photographs, at the museum and art gallery of the Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture. Many of his experiments were interesting. He covered a wide range of subjects and picked scenes from various parts of the country. For any successful exhibition, a proper curation and display is necessary. This was brilliantly executed by Chandralekha Sengupta. The photo showing a boat sailing along a river in a wintry morning was a connoisseur’s delight. The top angle had been chosen well. The best candid photograph was that of a dog seen tasting the blood dropping from a wooden altar.
Sunil K. Dutt
The curtain rises to a warm set ? two tea cups on a table in a room, bathed in the soft light of dawn. An elderly couple, exuding utter Bengali middle class comfort, engages in humdrum chatter. But the set, sound and light of Swabak’s production Nastya Nirman (July 9, Rabindra Sadan) create a deliberately deceptive sense of solace, which is systematically shattered as the plot unfolds. The theme is done-to-death ? loneliness in the old after the children have left home. But the treatment is its strength, with director Nilima Chakraborty and actor Amar Sarkar portraying mother and father respectively with competent realism.
Dola Mitra
