Hemant, Lata, Sandhya come alive on stage in Debojyoti Mishra's musical theatre on Salil Chowdhury in San Francisco

Salil Chowdhury had traversed various arenas of music. Be it love songs, songs of association in life, or songs of mass movement, his wander...

Salil Chowdhury had traversed various arenas of music. Be it love songs, songs of association in life, or songs of mass movement, his wanderings in the arena of various subjects was his own talent. Salil Chowdhury passed away on September 5 in 1995. Debojyoti Mishra has been his long-time assistant-musician as a companion on the maestro's musical journey.

Salil Chowdhury's birth centenary is coming in 2024 and celebrations have started at the Banga Mela in the Bay City of San Francisco. A musical theatre based on the life of Salil Chowdhury was recently presented in the city. Called Jibon Ujjiban, Debojyoti Mishra has written the entire screenplay and arranged the music. The 40-minute drama depicts his journey from Assam's tea plantations to Mumbai.

Songs from Do Bigha Zamin. Anand's Zindagi Kaisi Peheli, Madhumati, Na Mono Lage Na, Ei Duniyay Bhai Sobi Hoy, Pothe Ebar Namo Sathi, Ahowan Shono Ahowan were performed. Salil Chowdhury, Lata Mangeshkar, Hemant Mukhopadhyay, Jharua, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay and others appeared as characters on the stage. The drama was directed by Anindya Chakraborty. Shuben and his team were in charge of the songs. Dance direction was by Chandreeyi Mukherjee, Shijhini Gupta, and Dalia Sen.

Sabyasachi Basu was in the role of Salil Chowdhury, Jharuya was Sayini Roy, Lata Mangeshkar was played by Chandreeyi Mukherjee, Raj Kapoor, and Chaplin was enacted by Pinaki Mukherjee, Chhobi Biswas was enacted by Anirban Maiti, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay was played by Aniruddha Banerjee while Bimal Roy was Soumen Ghosh, all of whom mesmerized with their performance.

Debojyoti Mishra said, "Salil Chowdhury's musical theatre based on his life came to my mind suddenly. Dalia Chatterjee Sen of San Francisco's Bay Area came to know about this and thought of this production and Anindya Chakraborty directed the play. The production has been planned up in Kolkata in a big way and in other cities too. Perhaps this is the first musical theatre based on Salil Chowdhury's life in this country."