The Kolkata Poush Utsav 2.0 is all set to be held at Rabindra Tirtha Lawns from 24th to 29th December 2019. Presented by LINK UP in association with WBHIDCO Santiniketan comes to Kolkata with a daylong event starting from 12 p.m-9 p.m.
What’s In Store
Eminent personalities like Alokananda Roy, Anjan Dutt, Debashish Roychoudhuri, Amita Dutt will perform Rabindranath Tagore’s plays with their theatre group and dance troupe at the festival. Paramita Banerjee, Proprietor of LINK UP says, “This is the second year of Kolkata Poush Utsav and the main theme this year will be Lokoshilpo. If not exactly like Santiniketan, but still we try to follow the same routine and celebration like in Santiniketan.” Kolkata’s mayor Firhad Hakim and artist Subhaprasanna will inaugurate the ceremony on 24th December.
The event starts on 24th morning with the customary Brahma sangeet rendition and prayer at the Upasanaghar in New Town. The fair features a pavilion for 12 women entrepreneurs representing self-help groups from 6 revenue districts, 30 global artisans including the tribal laying out creative artifacts. These include handicrafts, handloom, woollens, custom jewellery, decor, fashion accessories and homemade processed food products. A themed food pavilion serving traditional delicacies, sweets and Christmas confectionaries are placed to quell the hunger.
Performances Galore
Alokananda Roy will perform “Dhrubajyoti tumi Jishu” along with her drama troupe on 24th December. “The play has no dialogues and it is based entirely on Tagore songs. I wanted to do this play for a long time and I am happy that it is finally happening,” said Alokananda Roy.
On the 25th of December, Anjan Dutt along with his theatre group, will perform “Raghupati” his adaptation on Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Bisarjan’. A little known fact is that Dutta started his career with theatre but soon switched over to films. “I always knew I will come back to theatre because I wanted to do it again. I would do theatre on foreign country themes, but lately, I do plays about my own country. Raghupati is very close to my heart and in my adaptation I want the people to know how relevant the play is especially in the current times. This is the first time I will be doing an open theatre show.” Said Anjan Dutt.
The evening of 26th December have exclusive folk to give audiences a sense of the roots. Legendary thespian and actor Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay will be see performing to his likes on the evening of 27th December. On 28th December Dakshinee will present Tagore’s dance drama ‘Phalguni’ directed by Debashish Raychoudhuri. The last day will see Dr Amita Dutt and her troupe Ananda Chandrika perform ‘Janani Janmabhoomi’ and that will bring in the curtains for this year edition of Kolkata Poush Utsav 2.0.
And Finally
There will be more than 120 folk artistes representing traditional baul, chou, santhal, gambhira, raibenshe amongst other perfomances. They will be performing at the akhara, lawns and stage.
“We celebrate every festival related to Tagore and Santiniketan. People often address this place as ‘Kolkata’s Santiniketan’ and I don’t know how far it is true but we try. And this year too will try to give a glimpse or maybe an insight of what it is to be at Santiniketan during this time of the year.” c curator of Rabindra Tirtha.
