In pictures: Stars light up Santoshpur Agantuk Retro Fest night at Anderson Club

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The evening began with a dance performance by Darpani. The performers danced to 10 songs by the legendary lyricist and composer Salil Chowdhury, who composed in over 13 languages. Chowdhury’s birth centenary is in 2025

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Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee played the narrator, explaining each song and giving the audience a deeper understanding of what the performers were portraying through their movements. “Salil Chowdhury was a musical genius. He wasn’t just a composer but a representative of a time where an entire concept of rebellion against the colonial hangover was happening through music; he represented the time. Chowdhury was an inter-disciplinary artiste, he represented a movement in music so that was very interesting for me as we were walking back in history with the performance just not memory lane through this homage,” Chatterjee said

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Debjani Chatterjee and Arnab Bandyopadhyay led the dance performance choreographed by Arnab Bandyopadhyay. “Today’s performance was the result of a lot of hard work by our 17 dancers. We had to choose just 10 songs from a treasure trove of music composed by the legend. Even those 10 songs were very difficult to choreograph because we used various dance forms and styles, including Bollywood, folk, Odissi, Bharatanatyam and even some Maharashtrian steps. To bring it all together and make it fit to the difficult compositions of Salil Chowdhury’s music was a tough ask but I am very happy that it turned out well,” Bandyopadhyay said

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Speaking about her performance, Debjani Chatterjee said: “The entire team of Darpani put in a lot of hard work. We worked for over 15 days to perfect each song and it was obviously very difficult to just restrict ourselves to 10 songs. I’ve looked up to Salil Chowdhury not just as a composer but a complete artist and to be part of an event that pays homage to such a personality is an honour and something I will cherish and remember for the rest of my life”

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Next up were the musical duo Sourendo-Soumyojit who paid tribute to classical music maestro Rashid Khan before switching to retro artistes like Kishore Kumar, RD Burman and more

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“When you pay tribute to such legends, we feel it’s the only way to pay homage because Indian music is what it is because of the way these legendary composers thought and worked,” said Sourendro Mullick, who acknowledged that the enthusiasm of the crowd added extra energy and passion to their performance. Sourendro added that it was always to perform in programmes with a cause. “It is indeed special when our music reflects the society. Music is our passion but passion for a reason makes it even more special”

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Soumyojit Das admitted to feeling a bit under the weather because of a sore throat but added: “When I am on stage, it is not really me performing. While singing, I never felt even once that I should take it easy”

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Debjani Chatterjee, too, lauded the efforts of Santoshpur Agantuk to organise such a beautiful event. “Santoshpur Agantuk has been working behind the scenes for quite some time, trying to leave a lasting impact on society and it is a privilege and a pleasure to take part in an event which will help the organisation take greater strides in the development of society.” Santoshpur Agantuk works for the development of society, providing funds for education of first-generation learners, helping children with autism and other special needs as well as women’s empowerment. Swarnali Pal, president of Santoshpur Agantuk, said it was the organisation’s motto to bring a smile to every face. “We try our best to take part in the uplift of the society. Our organisation tries to do as much as possible to help bring happiness to people. We are into our 10th year and it is an honour to have some great artistes and performers on stage to help us raise funds for our projects.” Arijit Mukherjee, the secretary of Santoshpur Agantuk, thanked all those who were a part of the initiative at Anderson Club on February 9