17/01/2021
TAGORE - LIFE UNENDING by Arif Hafiz
Soumitra Chatterjee's baritone and Sharmila Tagore's bold and mischievously charming reading at the bilingual “Onnishesh Pran: Life Unending” enthralled Dhakaiites at the Radission Blu Water Garden Hotel Dhaka last Monday evening. On the occasion of Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary, Excalibur Entertainment and Jatrik hosted the production -- a narrative of the bard's life and works. The event was sponsored by Airtel Bangladesh in association with The City Bank Ltd.
“Life Unending” is a stage production that presents a unique combination of words, images and the musical legacy of Rabindranath Tagore. Each of these elements was explored through unique facets of expression. Narrative text and quotations from the poet's repertoire were presented concurrently in Bangla and English.
The narratives were presented by legendary stage and screen personalities whose association with the poet's works are both profound and extensive. Soumitra Chatterjee started his career with Satyajit Ray's “Apur Sansar” in 1959. He has since been considered the doyen of Bengali movies and is one of the most eloquent narrators of Tagore's work. Sharmila Tagore, the grandniece of the great poet, is one of Bengal's best-known silver screen goddesses and an iconic beauty who ruled Bollywood in the '70s. She too started her career with Ray's “Apur Sansar”. Jagannath Guha is a veteran Kolkata stage artiste and has many Bollywood and Hollywood movies to his name such as “The City of Joy”, “Refugee”, “Bhalo Meye Kharap Meye”, “Bor Bou Khela”, “The Namesake”, “Padakshep” and “Danga”. He is highly regarded in the industry as a voice-over artiste.
In the production, Tagore's personal narrative entwines with his extensive philosophical journeys -- the intimate with the expansive and the poetic with the political. The visual element is presented through a rich gallery of rarely seen photographs, blended with moving pictures that retrace important moments in Tagore's life. His music is showcased through aptly chosen songs with melodies presented in the Western Classical mode by the chamber orchestra of the Calcutta Music Academy, under the baton of the talented Abraham Mazumdar. In all, the eventful life and the creative genius of Rabindranath Tagore were presented to the audience through scintillating and thought-provoking vignettes by Soumitra Mitra, the director of the play. He was seemingly excited to be able to stage his montage on Tagore, and said that he would come back again to Dhaka for such shows in the future.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore. He lost his mother at an early age and his first encounter with death was one that deeply moved him: “I came to the veranda, the final resting place of my mother, where she was laid down in all her finery, looking tranquil and in peace, only when she was carried to the front door did I realise that mother would never cross that front door.”
His close friendship with his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi was reflected in his writings and he dedicated his work to her -- “tomake dilam”. Her demise was a monumental loss for him, and he wrote: “death tore my world, my mind became perplexed, life is like a mirage… life and death are omnipresent.”
In addition to his numerous literary activities, he also managed the Tagore family estates. This brought him in close contact with the masses and got him interested in social reforms. When he was weighed down by responsibilities he sought respite in Bangladesh, in its people and nature. It is here that he developed the idea of establishing a school where impressionable minds of children would be nurtured in a relaxed ambience without rigid rules. He started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadik ideals of education. His wife Mrinalini Devi, with whom he shared a profound relationship, later became extremely important in all aspects of his life. She sold her jewellery to raise funds for the school.
Tagore regularly advocated for political freedom in his own visionary way, and Mahatma Gandhi was his devoted admirer. In fact it was the poet who gave him the title “Mahatma” (great soul).
Despite great personal losses -- the deaths of his wife, beloved daughter and favourite disciple -- Rabindranath initiated the Rakhi Bandhan movement to protest the partition of Bengal. He strongly felt that external forces should not separate Bengal and that unity was the only strength Bengalis could rely on to stop aggression.
Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915 but he gave up the title a few years later in protest against British policies in India.
Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With the translations of some of his poems into English, he became rapidly known in the West. His fame took him across continents and he became the global voice of India.
In his later years, he became known for yet another of his creative abilities -- painting. He took great pleasure in his paintings because his strokes were free from the burden of striving for recognition and he wrote, “painting is liberating”.
All in all the show was an enriching experience for the enthusiastic Dhaka crowd; the efforts of Farhan Quddus of Excalibur Entertainment should be appreciated.
The writer is Editor, Star Lifestyle.
