Lucknow's Bengali Club Celebrates Rabindranath Tagore's 165th Birth Anniversary With Music And Dance

Lucknow: The 165th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was celebrated with music, dance and theatre at the Bengali Club in Lucknow on Saturday.

Floral tributes paid to Gurudev by club officials

The programme was jointly organised by the Bengali Club and Youngmen’s Association along with the Lucknow branch of Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan.

The celebrations began with floral tributes to Gurudev by Bengali Club president Arun Kumar Banerjee, vice president Amit Kumar Ghosh, secretary Trisha Sinha and treasurer Deb Bhattacharya. Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan president Sandeep Bose and secretary Enakshi Sinha also paid homage to Tagore.

Highlight of evening was dance drama Prakriti O Anando

The event opened with a recitation of Tagore’s poetry by Enakshi Sinha, followed by group renditions of Rabindra Sangeet including “Aguner Porosh Moni Chhoao Praane” and “Prano Bhoriye Trisha Horiye” by Enakshi Sinha, Snigdha Banerjee, Deboshree Banerjee, Shreyan Biswas and Anshuman Pramanik. Sneha Ghoshal also performed “Ogo Nodi Apan Bege Pagol Para” and “Maya Bono Biharini”.

The highlight of the evening was the dance drama “Prakriti O Anando”, based on Tagore’s play “Chandalika”, directed by Sanjeev Roy and presented by Nrityayan, Lucknow.

Khushi Yadav, Rupa Mukherjee and Rishika Mukherjee in lead roles

The production depicted the story of Prakriti, a young girl ostracised as an untouchable, and her transformative encounter with Ananda, the chief disciple of Lord Buddha. The play explored themes of equality, dignity and social discrimination.

Khushi Yadav played the role of Prakriti, while Rupa Mukherjee portrayed Maya and Rishika Mukherjee essayed the role of Ananda. Sanjeev Roy appeared as Rajdoot. Supporting performances were given by Anju Bose, Anjana Sengupta, Priti Das, Shreya Mishra, Babita Malhotra, Manasvi Srivastava, Pratishtha Rao and Sanchita Choudhury.

Lighting arrangements were handled by Vicky, sound control and coordination by Mrinalini Roy, makeup by Satish and costume design by Nivedita Roy.

Officiating assistant general secretary Ashish Bhattacharya delivered the vote of thanks at the end of the programme.