Rourkela: A function for the recital of Rabindra Sangeet titled ‘Unmesh’ to commemorate the 163rd birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was held at Bhanja Bhawan Auditorium in Steel City, Sunday. The audience was enthralled by the exhilarating performance of quality and sacredness of the concert and expressed their appreciation throughout the event.
Similar performances were held across 11 states involving more than 1,100 artists who sang 20 choicest creations of the poet. The performance involving nonstop singing of 20 poems by Tagore began at 11 am and continued for an hour and forty minutes.
The songs included one of Gurudev’s most loved and famous numbers, ‘Ekla Chalo Re’. The programme was organised by Geetimalya, an organisation dedicated to music, especially Rabindra Sangeet. Earlier, Geetimalya used to perform in Kolkata, but this time it is organising the programme at the all-India level. Susmita Naskar and Rakhi from Cuttack were the lead singers. Speaking at the event, Susmita said live performance is a lifetime opportunity for all. “And this time, 105 artistes, all from Odisha, are participating in this chorus.
As many as sixteen singers from Cuttack, five from Bhubaneswar and 84 from Rourkela are participating in this recital,” she said. Most of the artistes from Rourkela were Odias. Mana Chakraborty of Geeitimalya said that Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and Rabindra Sangeet not only belong to Bengal or Bengalis but it is for all. The audience enjoyed the performance with rapt attention. Bisu, a member of the audience, said that he loved the music and this was just another opportunity to enjoy the immortal creations of Gurudev. Sharmila, another audience, said she enjoyed every bit of the performance. “The best part of Rabindra Sangeet lies in its simplicity,” she said. Koyena Dastidar, the coordinator of the programme, said, “The performance is the result of over eight months of relentless practice which was really back-breaking. It is for that hard work that the artistes managed to perform at a certain level.”
She thanked Susmita for her untiring effort to train a mixture of trained and amateur artistes. The practice sessions were held at various places in Rourkela, such as Civil Township, Basanti Colony, Koel Nagar. The performance was held with no accompanist musicians and the artistes sang to the track. Similar performances were held in MP, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata, Assam, New Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana, and were live-streamed on YouTube.