Kolkata, December 17, 2017: Founded in 1986 by Bengali dramatist Ranjana Bhanja, ‘Abhibyakti‘ (meaning expression) marked the completion of 31 years of its journey with a cultural evening held at the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy, Kolkata on Sunday.
With an auditorium packed with audio drama-lovers, five audio plays (srutinatok) written and directed by Ranjana Bhanja, were performed by various experienced artists of the fraternity including active members of the organization – Prasenjit Ghosh, Amita Ghosh Roy, Hiralal Sil, Smritimoy Ghosh and Ranjana Bhanja.
“We had less than two weeks to prepare for the show due to late confirmation of the auditorium availability by authorities; busy schedules of the artists and other unavoidable reasons. However, all our performers worked hard at their personal levels to make the evening worthwhile. We could hardly manage to do music rehearsals due to time constraints. But the huge appreciation of live audience which is still flowing in through calls and on social networks, is our greatest asset and encouragement to think differently and be able to present with more such stories inspired by the various elements of our society. I thank everyone who performed and supported our event and stood by us through the hardships”, said Ranjana Bhanja.
An organization working towards exploration of Bengali literature and audio acting, ‘Abhibyakti’ has been instrumental as an important platform for promotion of some newer talents in the audio-drama fraternity over time. This year, some new additions were seen on stage – Sampa Dey, Subhra Basu, Piyali Roy, Sudipta Chaudhuri, Debmalya Banerjee, Debashish Chakraborty, Shampa Chakraborty and Kalyani Biswas.
A guest performance of poetry collage was presented by ‘Swajan’ – a popular poetry & drama organization led by Aparajita Paul. ‘Nola’ performed by Smritimoy Ghosh and Amita Ghosh Roy followed by ‘Chorkata’ performed by Ranjana Bhanja, Prasenjit Ghosh, Hiralal Sil and Debmalya Banerjee were among the most appreciated presentations. Background music score was directed by Utsav Bhanja.
December 17th, this year’s first evening of Poush – the month of Bengali calendar that marks winter celebrations, was indeed an introspective journey of thoughts, celebrations and ups-downs of the various aspects of life, society and morale expressed through the well written and strikingly performed pieces of stories.