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Swaveda - Blog - Spreading the Magic of Tagore in UK| Home | Blog | Spreading the Magic of Tagore in UK | | | | Posted by: supatra | Jul 08, 2005
By Supatra Chowdhury
Balmiki Prativa has broken geographical barriers to find an overwhelming response on foreign soil
Interest in Tagore music among London-based Bengalis has never been as intense. The Tagore Society has been functioning for several decades in the heart of the city offering a wealth of research material to Tagore lovers who are free to spend hours poring over the valuable collections. Kalyan Kundu, who has spearheaded the activities of the society for many years, has been an extremely resourceful promoter of Tagore’s varied compositions. He has produced simple translations of some of the stories designed for schools in Britain. He has mounted exhibitions on the British media’s response to the poet over several decades since he won the Nobel Prize. He has also expanded the activities of the society to include lectures and music classes. Last year the society also invited Kolkata’s Chetana theatre group to perform in London and the response was very inspiring,
And now the activities relating to Tagore in London have taken a giant leap with the staging of Balmiki Prativa recently. This is one of Tagore’s most challenging dance dramas, which has been memorably handled by Ashoketaru Bandopadhyay. In fact, it is still the reference point for most productions. One could hardly expect the same results in London where the inputs are limited and the people involved are busy with their different engagements and treat their musical interests as more of a pastime. Yet The Tagoreans that presented the dance drama had reason to be pleased with the results. For one thing, it drew not just the performers from different organizations under a single banner but also an overflowing audience at the Steiner Theatre. Haimanti Shukla first treated the audience to a session of Nazrul songs before discovering the magic world of Tagore’s dacoits against an exquisite backdrop of the forest.
To be sure, it was a painted backdrop brought over from Kolkata. But there were umpteen props to give the performance the power and conviction, which it needed. This was due largely to the sustained efforts of Ananda Gupta who not only appeared in the title role but also directed the music over a period of six months. He also sang most of the songs which had a classical base - “Bakuley hoye boney’’ in Maj Khamaj, “Aye maa amar sathe’’ in Bhairavi, “Ranga pada padma jagey’’ in Bageshree and “Ebar chhere cholechhi maa’’ sang in a Ramprasadi vein.
Ananda had given exciting glimpses of his musical repertoire during his last stay in Kolkata - at the Sovabazar Rajbari, the Brahmo Samaj and more intimate gatherings at Crossword and other places. However, his singing for Balmiki Prativa was a revelation even to those who have heard him regularly in London. The songs were recorded and the lip synchronisation on stage was an indication of the strenuous rehearsals that had taken place. What was more revealing were Ananda’s fluent movements on stage which blended effortlessly with the contribution of professional dancers like Manashi Barua (Saraswati), Bina Goswami (Balika), Urbi Basu and Jayanta Roy who sang and also played the first dacoit who responded well to Gairika Gupta’s choreographic ideas.
The stage itself came alive with planted trees, a symbol of Goddess Kali and a red light penetrating a bush to create an eerie effect. The Tagoreans hadn’t attempted anything like this before but the final result was perhaps due to spontaneous contributions from everyone - the actors and the men behind the scenes. There are plans to bring the production to Kolkata. That would certainly be something to look forward to.
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