Chalochitre Rabindranath will always be a clincher, not for the novelty of the theme but for the sheer magnetic connection. The event held by Radius at the G.D. Birla Sabhaghar held immense potential. But it kept meandering in the labyrinth of depth and content.

An impressive line-up of artistes - Soumitra Chatterjee, Srabani Sen, Srikanta Acharya, Saptak and others - promised a lively evening. However, there were murmurs of discontent concerning sound, moving television advertisements, accompanying music and, one suspects, even the content.

Chatterjee's repertoire of films connected to Tagore found him making peripheral references to Samapti, Ghare Baire and Kshudhita Pashan. He also highlighted the contribution of late filmmakers like Rituparno Ghosh and Bappaditya Banerjee towards the main theme. Saptak chose to sound like Kishore Kumar in "Aami chini go chini" (Charulata). The emcee also remarked how similar the voices are - was this necessary? Saptak later returned to do two more songs: " Bidhir badhan" (Ghare Baire) and " Mayabono biharini" (Lukochuri). Kishore Kumar's trademark style was evident in these too.

Srikanta Acharya lived up to his reputation with " Esho amaar ghore" (Chayasurjya), " Chorono dhorite" (Dadar Kirti) and " Deep nibe gechhe mamo" (Asukh). This segment was perhaps the closest to the theme in terms of information, performance and impact.

In her light, frothy style but one with depth, Sraboni Sen delivered " Bipulo taranga" (Paromitar Ek Din) and " Mamo chitte" (Swapner Feriwala). Somehow, the pathos of Pratima Bandopadhyay's rendition of " Eei kothati mone rekho" (Chowringhee) is so vividly etched that the refrain refuses to ebb. Sen attempted this song. Dipannita Choudhury gave a nice touch to the wavy " Sraboner dharar moto"(Alo).