Anjan Dutta and Neel Dutta perform at a club in Calcutta. File picture

Feb. 10: Renowned musician and filmmaker Anjan Dutta and his singer, songwriter son Neel will perform at ITA Cultural Complex at Machkhowa on February 23.

The father-son duo’s show is part of a three-day celebration of the 14th International Mother Language Day by city-based NGO Byatikram MASDO.

In 1999, Unesco declared February 21 International Mother Language Day. Since 2000, the day has been celebrated across the globe to promote linguistic and cultural diversity as well as multiculturalism.

The history of the day goes back to 1952. On February 21 that year, students were demonstrating in Dhaka — which was then in erstwhile East Pakistan. The protesters demanded recognition of their mother tongue, Bengali, as one of the two national languages of Pakistan.

Pakistani police fired on the peaceful students and a number of people were killed.

Anjan and Neel Dutta are popular for setting new trends in Bengali music. Anjan’s style of music is different from others in the sense that it has simple tunes, one that is reminiscent of western folk music. His lyrics are simple and more natural. A substantial portion of his songs captures stories of various fictitious, urban characters like Raja Roy, Samson, Horipado, Mala and Roma.

The event will begin at 10am on February 21. Clothes will be distributed among the poor and the handicapped.

Byatikram will also distribute books worth Rs 10,000 each to 10 different schools and colleges in remote areas. Books of various writers from all over the Northeast have been selected.

“The main purpose behind this is to help children of those rural areas and generate awareness and interest in literature of different places of the Northeast,” a member of the organisation said.

MP Bhubaneswar Kalita, former vice-chancellor of Assam University Tapodhir Bhattacharjee, former president of Asam Sahitya Sabha Kanaksen Deka, former head of Bengali department of Gauhati University Usharanjan Bhattacharjee and chairman of Assam Public Service Commission Rakesh Paul will participate in a seminar on the topic, “Difficulties of regional languages and its solution”.

Eminent Assamese and Bengali writers will be felicitated and a seminar on the topic — “Guru Sankaradeva and Vaishnavite cult of Assam — will be organised with speakers such as Ranjit Dev Goswami, professor of Gauhati University and author Bimal Phukan on the day.

A book on Sankardev written by Phukan will also be released.

The second day will feature luminaries like N.K. Bhattacharjee, director of KK Birla Foundation (New Delhi), writers Harsha Datta, Bikash Roy (from Calcutta) and Sidd Banerjee (from Mumbai) and Litu Anam from Bangladesh at a seminar on the topic, “Sunil Ganguly: His Life and Literature.”

The Duttas will perform on the concluding day. “We are organising the function to give a platform to people of each and every community to discuss their own culture and literature. Our motto is to spread the message of cultural harmony in society,” Saumen Bharatiya, president of Byatikram MASDO, said.