Twin tunes

One of the highlights of Manche Mitra Shure Biswas, an evening exploring the lives of the theatre doyen, Shambhu Mitra, and the revolutionary Rabindrasangeet singer, Debabrata Biswas, was Samriddhi Mukherjee’s buoyant keyboard playing. His nimble fingers merged with the dramatised readings, creating bewitching vignettes. He also provided understated arrangements to the songs. The event was held at Uttam Mancha where the sound was unusually clear throughout.

For the rather unique theme, the organisers could not have chosen a better pairing than the seasoned actor, Debshankar Haldar, and the young singer, Samya Karpha. The duo conjured a vivid tableaux of pre-Independence Calcutta with their anecdotes. The evening’s lone singer, Sounak Chattopadhyay, retained a youthful quality in his voice, though an occasional tremolo undermined his renditions. This was evident in the opening chant, “Twami sharanam”, which was followed by an uneven “Hey mor debota”. By the time he reached “Amar shokol niye boshe achi”, he sounded more assured.