The Annual Day is a special day in our club’s calendar because it not only help us count the no. of years we have traveresed with ascending progress, but also provides an occasion to showcase the talents of our members and their families. The program started with lighting of holy lamp by few office bearers and senior members of New Bengal Club and the Ladies wing.
The theme of the cultural program this year had something for everyone. The first half the program was a musical tribute to two legends of Bengali culture – Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore & Kazi Nazrul Islam, and; the second part was a celebration of popular foot tapping modern songs drawn from both Bengali & Hindi cinemas.
The first part of the program, 'Rabindra Nazrul Sandhya', was conceptualised & directed by Jhuma Dutta.
The tribute to Rabindranath Tagore “Chhayachhobitey Kabiguru”, scripted by Jhuma Dutta, was a journey of appreciation of how Rabindrasangeet has found expression in Bengali cinemas over the ages – encompassing a very popular Uttam, Anjana, Shubendu starrer 'Chowringhee' of 1968 to Uttam-Suprya starrer 'Mon niye' of the 1970s, or to a more contemporary rendition of 'Noukadubi' by Rituparno Ghosh, etc.
“Sharaney Mananey Nazul” - a collage of Nazrulgeeti and poetry of Kazi Nazul was scripted by Mou Dutta.
Following artists successfully presented the program "Rabindra Nazrul Sandhya":
The singers, Sanjukta Ghosh Maity, Jhuma Dutta, Mandira Chakraborty, Mousumi Basak, Arpita Ghosh, Pratyusha Ghosh, Mousumi Mukherjee, Rupa Ghatak & Chandan Maity, kept the audience spell bound. Few of the songs were brought to life by the graceful *dance* performances of Suparna Gangopadhyay, Sayani Biswas, Rima Kar, Anindita Chakraborty, Rajasree Dasgupta & Tannishtha Chatterjee.
The flow of the program was seamlessly maintained by the narration of Anup Banerjee, Tapas Dey, Oindrila Dey, Keya Ray & Mou Dutta – who interspersed the commentary with narration and poetry.
If the first part of the program was sombre and classy, the second part was pure fun as Debashish Sarkar and his team took to the stage for the program “Gaan Sudhu Gaan” – a medley of songs from Bengali & Hindi films. Whether it was the modern rendition of Rabindrasangeet by Shreya Ghosal, the fusion of Hindi & Bengali lyrics to the tune of 'Kora Kaagaz tha yeh man mera' or, 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna', they swept the audience off their feet.
Hats off to Debashish Sarkar (who also conceptualised & directed the program) & the team comprising Gargi Dev, Debjani Sarkar, Monika Sarkar, Medhadrita Kataki, Suparna Mukherjee & Subhojit Mukherjee (who also compèred the program nicely with few lines of shayari to build the mood).
In between the two programs, our President requested members present in the programme to have some self analysis. He reminded members that though we claim our club as “Most Happening Bengali Club of Thane”, in our General Body Meetings or in Annual General Meetings hardly 20 to 30 members attend. He requested members present to bring at least one existing member each in addition to the 70/80 members who generally attend such programs. He further mentioned that if we could do that, NBC will not only be Most Happening Club of Thane but also most vibrant club of Thane as well as Mumbai.
New Managing Committee members of club as well club's Ladies' Wing for 2019-20 were introduced to the audience by senior member S K Sen.
Our founder President Ashim Chatterjee proposed Vote of thanks at the end.
It was a memorable evening which ended with a sumptuous dinner.
