Friends and well-wishers gathered at the CL Block campus of Asiatic Society to remember and celebrate Gautam Halder, the filmmaker from HB Block, who passed away on November 3. They also pledged to work towards turning Halder’s dreams and plans into reality.
Pandit Ajay Chakraborty, who knew Halder for 30 years, traced the start of their acquaintance to a brochure that he created for his music school Shrutinandan. “He was a man of refined taste and great mentality. His daughter learnt music from my daughter. When he made a film on me (Ajoy: The Creator of Shrutinandan) he travelled with me to Goa, England, America… The movie was 17 years in the making. He went to Shyamnagar (Chakraborty’s ancestral home) during Durga puja to speak to my parents. The film was launched five years ago. By then, they were no more. He was with me in every project of Shrutinandan. He had no demands. He did all for love,” recalled the veteran vocalist, also referring to A Story of Integration, Halder’s film on Pt Hirendra Kumar Ganguly, the tabla maestro more commonly known as Hirubabu, and got a (special mention at the) National Award(s).
Chakraborty also referred to the numerous programmes that Halder used to organise for him to perform in as also his proximity to other musicians like Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. “The former chief minister (Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) was also very fond of him. Nandan has never hosted any musical programmes barring two — of mine and of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan sahab. Gautam was also involved in those events,” he said, ending his reminiscences with a shanti stotra from the Upanishads.
Veteran theatre personality Rudraprasad Sengupta recalled Halder as a person of whom one could make all kinds of demands. “If the house has run out of kerosene, one could ask Gautam, though it was not his job to get it. He surely had better things to do. But he took the trouble. His range of resources thus extended from arranging a concert for Ustad Amjad Ali Khan to sourcing kerosene for me. I am staying in this city for 88 years. But it has lost its charm to me because of the absence of three people — Sombhu Mitra, Shankha Ghosh and Gautam Halder. I do not know how long he will last in my memory but I am certain that one sleepless night, when I am in trouble, I will certainly remember Gautam. That is the level of faith I have in him,” he said.
Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, a resident of Vidyasagar Niketan, had come to offer a musical tribute and reminisced before singing. “Gautamda amar ganer goray boshe achhen. When few people had heard of me and organisers were beginning to consider me as an artiste, Gautamda had organised a big solo programme for me, taking care of every detail from sound management to stage management. Two of my books have come out through Sutanoti Patakatha, through Gautamda’s initiative. He was a versatile talent. He has clicked the maximum number of my photographs, many of which have been used on my album covers. I saw his film Bhalo Theko 25 times. Gautamda said he did not know anyone else who had seen his film so many times. He had come to attend my ninth photographic exhibition and delivered such words of wisdom for us in his speech. He came to know of a personal battle I have been fighting since Class IX which later became news and named me amalito amal,” she said, before offering an emotional tribute through the song Chokher joley laglo jowar.
Rudraparasad Sengupta and Dr Abhijit Chowdhury
Author Binayak Bandyopadhyay felt Halder could have done so much more after getting the National Award for Bhalo Theko — “maybe 10 more films, 20 more plays, 50 more projects dealing with music. He was so versatile. But for him, the work of others was as important as his own. He would read my work and make others read it. His best work Mukti, a film based on Moti Nandi’s novel Bijolibalar Mukti (starring Rakhee Gulzaar), never saw light of day. Not all his work is readily available. Keeping his work alive is tantamount to keeping us alive,” he said.
Halder’s physician, Dr Abhijit Chowdhury, the hepatology head of SSKM Hospital, recalled how he used to suppress his illness. “He liked to downplay his ailments,” he said, adding that the logo of his Liver Foundation was created by him.
His friend for four decades Rushati Sen also spoke on the occasion.
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