Tagore's appeal cannot be bound in time for his followers: Tarun Bhattacharya

Asked about the concept of Tagorenama, the maestro told IBNS, “We mostly remember Tagore on his birthday, 25 Baisakh [by the Bengali calundar], by singing Rabindra-sangeet and reciting from his compositions, a method that has become commonplace.”

”Therefore, to bring something new and unique, film artist Biswajit Chakraborty and I initiated a plan of paying a tribute to Kabi Guru in a different way. We launched a project titled Tagorenama, with an underlying theme of poetry in music and music in poetry,” he added.
 
Speaking about the features of the program Tagorenama he said, ”Basically it will be a jugalbandi between me and Biswajit, where he will be reciting lines from the Bard’s poetry and I will be playing it on my musical instrument.”

On being asked about the influence of the Bard of Bengal on his life, Bhattacharya said: "Tagore has no age bar in reaching his followers. The same song holds a different meaning to people of different ages. I always try to emulate it in my work -- bring such depth and intensity in my passion that it becomes a ‘no age music’."

The program of Tagorenama will be unveiled at the Hotel Sonnet, on September 18 from 12 noon onwards, he said.

According to him, they will be performing five poems- first “byartho joubon”, second ”Nabo bandhu”, third “Barsha”, fourth “Thakur dada chutti” and fifth “subhokhhan”.

Rajiv Roy Chowdhury, General Manager, Hotel Sonnet, who will be hosting the program said: ”We are indeed glad that Tagorenama is being scheduled in our hotel. We believe that the name ‘Sonnet’ and Tagore has a  close connection as Tagore wrote many sonnets. The venue will heighten the mood of the program.”

“We have designed a global food menu for that special day, starting from Mexican to Chinese to Indian Chaat, a sort of a food fusion," he added.

(Reporting by Aninnya Sarkar)