Rabindrasangeet legends turn up at 'Parampara' show

A century after Tagore getting the Nobel medallion, Rabidrasangeet exponents of three generations of Bengal got together near Jorasanko paying obeisance to singing legend Sumitra Sen in a first-ever 'Parampara' anusthan.
"It is a 'tribeni sangam' which merges exactly 100-year and one month after the Bard got the Nobel award," popular Rabindrasangeet singer Sraboni Sen, the daughter of octogenraian Sumitra, told PTI on the sidelines of the programme.
A 22-carat coin, the only such coin ratified by World Gold Council to have heritage tag, was launched to commemorate the occasion.
"Me and sister Indrani, our famous colleagues and Tagore song exponents Promita Mallick and Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta have all come together commemorate the 152nd year of Rabindranath's birth anniversary and 100-year of his getting the Nobel in Europe.

To mark the stage appearance of singers representing different generations and yet equally passionate about Rabindrasangeet which you call parampara," Sraboni, whose playback tracks in several Rituparno Ghosh films have wooed audiences, said.
Sumitra, the only living legend of Tagore songs after the demise of Suchitra Mitra, Shantideb Ghosh and Kanika Bandyopadhay, said "I could not have done anything else in life other than making the manifold moods of Tagore lyrics manifest through my songs.

He is with us in every moment of solitude - grief and rejoice.
"Tagore had great rapport with Maharaja Birchandra Manikya of the Tripura Royal Family as reflected in his numerous letters, also making the reader revisit the days of his sojourn to Europe, encounter with W B Yeats and getting the Nobel prize," Sraboni said.

"There are songs from Puja, Prem phases of his works which bear Tripura's direct imprint on him as well as his dance-drama Chitrangada," Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, who felt humbled in the presence of Sumitra Sen, said adding in sync with the uniquely themed event she and her young disciple would sing the last and first Gitobitan numbers respectively.
Rupak Saha, from Shyamsundar Jewellers, Tripura, said, "Tagore had visited the state seven times in past and the first ever nobel commemorative gold coin, having his picture embossed on one side and the erstwhile royal state's map on the other, will remind the present generation of the tryst."

Shyamsundar wished to hold more programmes harping on this association in the city of Tagore, and near His birthplace Jorasanko, next one year, he said.