TOI celebrates legend's tryst with stage

Kolkata: Salil Chowdhury had first taken the stage for IPTA on January 21, 1942. To mark the occasion on Thursday, 'Ahoban Shono Ahoban', presented by The Times of India and directed by Debojyoti Mishra, celebrated the maestro's life with a musical that reflected a rehearsal within a play.
The houseful Kalamandir broke into an applause as soon as evergreen Chowdhury tracks - from 'Mon Haralo' to 'Amaye Dubaili Re' - were rendered by Rupankar along with Anweshaa Dutta Gupta, Shovan Ganguly and Madhura Bhattacharya, among others.Actors Neel Mukherjee, Koneenica Bandyopadhyay and members from Chetana theatre group kept up the tempo with their versatile performance.
"After a long while, I'm simultaneously singing and acting. Salil-babu is a legend and I couldn't be happier to play his character on stage," Rupankar, who juggled between playing Chowdhury as well as himself, told TOI.
Neel, who played the "metaphorical director", told TOI: "It has been like an actual rehearsal room. I had a great time acting and singing onstage. Salil-babu was a genius. It has been an honour to pay tribute to him.
The team, handpicked by Mishra, barely had time to rehearse for a couple of hours for a couple of days. The result, was phenomenal. It exemplified that less is more.
"This concept is 'story of songs'. It has been initiated abroad. I've always wanted to stage Salil Chowdhury's life story musically. I feel, after Rabindranath Tagore, no other composer has been this dynamic. Filmmaker, thespian, Salil-babu had always been an artistic rebel," Mishra said.
Among the guests were the who's who of the theatre world. Elocutionist Sujoy Prosad Chaterjee commented: "I keep thinking that Salil-babu was such a great composer that he could have created India's first rock opera. He literally created fusion music. He had borrowed heavily from Western classical strains and gelled it with Bengali folk. It was an unprecedented innovation."
"It was an honour to be involved with the project," said co-organizers Abir Banerjee and Piyali Dutta. Mishra praised Sankar Sen of Senco Gold & Diamonds for backing him to the hilt and Sen reciprocated: "I'm a fan of Mishra and I'm with him in any of his ventures."