Sunday, March 18, 2012

Vichitra and Rabindranath (contd-17)

Rathindranath informed in his letter another plan in Bichitra's project;
" We are trying to issue a monthly publication  -- in which the pictures of the artists will be reproduced. " Lastly, the project was undertaken by Ramananda Chattopadhyay.
Rathindranath informed;
" ... from the last week we have started regular weekly meetings  in which papers will be read and discussed." Regular meeting could not be held last year, but meetings were held this year in almost every week. Essays were not read in all meetings, sometimes there were music,sometimes drama. In the last week (22 Aug) Abanindranath delivered a lecture on "History of Indian Art". On 31st Aug, Mukul de wrote; " Prof. Geddes delivered a lecture on "Education".
Rabindranath read an essay, " Sangeeter Mukti" on 5th Sept and also sung himself the relevant songs, 3rd Oct he read "Amar darma", and 14th Nov. "Choto O Baro". The essays were read in other meetings also but he read those in Bichitra afresh. Jatindranath, son-in-law of Akshoy Choudhury, was a professional narrator of scriptural and mythological stories. He acted "Kangsabadh" on 18th July and 9th sept.
Rabindranath staged the drama after necessary editing on 26th and 28th sept.
Arrangements were done earlier to stage Dak Ghar.Which was staged on 10th Oct. It was staged 6times The other dates were, 11, 15, 16 Oct, 31 Dec 1917 and 4th Jan 1918. On 31st Dec, leaders like Annie Basant, Tilak, gandhiji, Madan Mohan Malabya  witnessed the drama. The acting, stage decoration, the reality of his drama created a history in stage performance.
Rathindranath wrote a letter to Mrs Seymour informing him about their activity of striking the traditional-fort with the  help of cartoon picture drawn  by Gaganendranath, " and we are going to follow [it] up by giving a public performance of Achalayatan"
The other programmes organized by Bichitra were,
Date / subject / speaker
14th Sept/Weztern Music/Mr. Sarkis
21Sept/ Bichitranushthan/Indian&Western Music
21 Nov/     ,,
26 Nov / ,,
28Nov / ,,
10 Dec /,,
12 Dec/ story reading-patra-patri/Rabindranath
16 Jan/Sahitya Paath/                        ,,
6 Mar / Ireland O Bharatbarsher Samasyar Sadrishya/ Rabindranath
20 Mar / Chander Artha/  Rabindranath
19 Dec/ Bhasa Dutta/ Bijoy Chandra Majumdar/Pramatha Choudhury/ Sunity Kumar Chattopadhyay
6 Feb / Silpa O Silpi / Abanindranath
20 Feb / Rup O Rekha/   ,,
27 Feb / Chanda Saraswati// Satyendranath
13 Mar/ Bhakta dadur Banisilpa/ Kshitimohan Sen
28 Mar/ Bilasi- Story/ Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.
From the coming year the activities of Bichitra gradually slowed down. Moreover, the initiatives taken by Rabindranath to convert Shantiniketan into "Viswabharati' led to the transfer of the programme of Vichitra to Viswabharati.