Members’ Roundup
What would we do once life is back to normal…..
HPCA’s musical troupe performed at the prestigious Haymarket theatre on the 24 th February’19 at Mahotsav – a South Asian dance and music festival organised by Kala The Arts Company, Basingstoke – to celebrate 20 years of their creation.
Their first rendition was a song (Nazrulgeeti) written by poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, popularly known at the time as rebel poet. The song “Jago Naari Jago” written in 1949, was a great tribute to the strength and power of women. The composition is based on Raag Vrindavani Sarang and 16 beat Tritaal.
The second presentation was a medley of peppy Bangla folk songs that depicted the beauty of the various seasons of Bengal and gave an insight into daily life in rural Bengal. The piece belonged to the genre of Bhaktigiti, Baul, Bihu and Bhatiyali.
Singers: Ranu Sahu, Suparna Kundu, Sushmita Barua, Sutapa Mukherjee, Sujit Sahu, Prashanta Bhattacharjee, Swayamjyoti Ray.
Musicians: Manab Ranjan Basu on Tabla, Prashanta Bhattacharjee on Harmonium, Swayamjyoti Ray on Guitar, Baishakhi Majumdar on Tambourine.
Credit and Inspiration: Koushik Maharatna
On 10th February 2019, HPCA members performed two dances in Vasant Panchami celebrations of Vedic Society Hindu Temple, Southampton.
Mor ghumoghore is a song by renowned poet and author Kazi Nazrul Islam. The song transcends the boundary of love and spirituality. It depicts the pleasure and happiness that we achieve when we completely surrender ourselves to the power of Almighty. The song is based on taal dadra and raag Bhairabi. The dancers were Renesa, Hiya, Maya and Rini. The dance was choreographed by Ranu Sahu.
Madhuro dhwani is a song written by the Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore. The song extols the beauty of Spring and the Goddess of learning Maa Saraswati and implores the Goddess to come to the fore and enlighten our minds and hearts. The song is based on taal Kaharwa. The dancers were Ranu and Shawni and the dance was been choreographed by Ranu Sahu.
Dramatic group reading of Extracts of Nil Darpan
On Saturday, 26th January 2019, Koushik Maharatna, Manab Basu, Baishakhi Mazumder, Suparna Kundu, Sutapa Mukherjee, Atanu Mallick, Rinoy Bera, Prasanta Das and Sandhya Banerjee were invited to read extracts of the famous play – Nil Darpan at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton.
The initiative led by Dr Nazneen Ahmed, Southampton based historian and writer, aimed to raise awareness of the history of indigo in South Asia and how it had adversely affected local population during Colonial India.
The reading was well attended (prominently) by British audience.
Subsequent Q&A session was also very engaging due to active participation of the public present.
