City artistes pay a tribute to Soumitra Chatterjee

When legends pass away, they leave footprints so deep that reminiscing their time on earth comes naturally to followers again and again. In keeping with the thought, members of an interdisciplinary arts collective, led by Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee, paid a tribute, Swaranika, to late Soumitra Chatterjee at a rooftop cafe recently.
"This tribute to Soumitra Chatterjee is a celebration of his arts and how his legacy should be nurtured by artistes from different spheres," said Sujoy.
Directed by Chandrima Chatterjee, the evening opened with a reading by Abhishek Dhar on how Soumitra Chatterjee, apart from being an iconic actor, was also the ambassador of a cultural milieu. Media personality Aritra Ganguli read out an imaginary letter to the legendary Apu and it had turned a few eyes misty in the audience. Singer Rupankar Bagchi remembered how Soumitra Chatterjee never discriminated artistic pursuits, be it a reality show or a stage reading for a rather fresh talent.

"It was a lovely evening. Some students read out poetry, artistes spoke about the lengend and I shared some anecdotes of meeting the man on several occasions, be it for stage performances, film recordings or at events," said Rupankar.
Vocalist Subhasree Patel enthralled the audience with Dirgho jibonopotho while Chaitali Lahiri won hearts with Hoy toh tomari jonnyo and O akash shona shona. The storytellers who shared anecdotes about Soumitra Chatterjee were Nandita Roy, Pratyusha, Aratrika, Digantika, Anita Dutta, Suparna Datta, Shampa Das, Digantika Chowdhury, among others.
The narrative was anchored by educationist Asita Chakraborty. Seen among the audience were singer-activist Piya Chakraborty and motivational speaker Sharmi Ray.