Girish Choudhury’s drawing room where the first adda of the Gauhati Silpi Sangh will be held tomorrow evening. Picture by Biju Boro

Aug. 20: Anil Niloy, the residence of Natya Samrat Girish Choudhury in Ulubari, will again reverberate with voices raised high trying to establish a point.

The late maestro’s residence, once a favourite haunt of adda-lovers, will become an “open house” for a day every month. Anyone and everyone with an opinion about the state of performing arts can walk in and exchange ideas with like-minded individuals.

The first of the open houses, to be held tomorrow from 6 pm under the initiative of the Gauhati Silpi Sangha, is an effort to keep alive the adda culture at the house of Choudhury who died on May 18.

With an aim of sparking constructive deliberations on developments relevant to the field of arts, culture, literature and cinema, the first session of the adda will revolve around the subject of the day, “Drama and Gesture”.

The Sangha secretary Mrinal Kanta Das said: “Our bid to revive the adda culture is an attempt to preserve the memories and contributions of eminent personalities from the world of the art and literature like Girish Choudhury, Navakanta Baruah, Satya Prasad Baruah, Anil Choudhury and Makhan Dewan, among others.”

Earlier, informal addas were common at tea stalls like Kalpana in Panbazar, at the residence of the late Girish Choudhury and Satya Prasad Baruah, Asam Sahitya Sabha office, Seagull. But they fizzled out with time.

Das said every open house would deliberate on a chosen topic which may be related to music, fine arts, drama, literature, elocution or cinema. “It will be an open house. Anyone with an interest in these fields can step in and join the adda. If this first endeavour of ours succeed, then we will increase the frequency of the adda to at least twice a month. Our efforts will be to revive adda in a more organised way.”

The sangha has also decided to invite special guests to each session and in due course the once-a-month session will become a weekly affair. “On our debut we have invited the likes of noted writer Ram Goswami, playwright Bimal Hazarika, eminent director and dramatist Shyama Prasad Sarma, actor Dinesh Das and director Nayan Prasad,” he said.

The Gauhati Silpi Sangha, started way back on September 15, 1949, has been spearheading the amateur theatre movement in the state. It was at the initiative of the sangha, under the leadership of Girish Choudhury, that women actors first appeared on stage in Assam.

If this latest venture of the sangha becomes as popular as its other endeavours, theatre buffs and art lovers will have one more reason to remain grateful to the organisation.