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Bengal

Bengali songs will be internationally popular soon, says Mamata

Kolkata: The popularity of Bengali songs is growing fast and will soon become international, said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the inaugural function of Bangla Sangeet Mela and Biswa Bangla Lok Sanskriti Utsav at Nazrul Mancha on Wednesday afternoon.

She said over 5,000 artistes of different categories will take part in the Sangeet Mela that has become immensely popular. It may be recalled that after coming to power in 2011, Banerjee has given special emphasis on the revival of folk art and folk music.

Under the Lok Prasar Prakalpa, around 2 lakh artistes are given monthly stipend. Folk artistes are invited to perform at the cultural programmes held in different fairs throughout the year.

Many folk artistes who had joined other vocations have come back to their original fold because of the financial assistance provided by the state government.

In addition to this, the artistes are also given instruments free of cost. Folk artistes were honoured at the Sangeet Mela for their contribution in enriching the culture of Bengal.

The inaugural lamp of the event was lit by legendary singer Sandhya Mukherjee. The function concluded with two songs sung by the veteran vocalist. Mukherjee sang a Ganga stotra and her famous duet O mon kokhon shuru kokhon je sesh with Shyamal Mitra from the super-hit Bengali feature film Kamallata, in which the main actors were Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.

The song was written by Pranab Ray and composed by Rabin Chatterjee. The one stanza which she sang enthralled the audience.

Meanwhile, the Information and Cultural Affairs department honoured noted composer Jeet Ganguly, Abhijeet, Kumar Shanu and Usha Utthup, with Bishesh Sangeet Mahasamman.

Gautam Ghosh, the singer who rose to fame by singing songs of Kishore Kumar, was honoured with Sangeet Mahasamman along with well-known folk artistes Porikkhit Bala, sitar maestro Jaya Biswas and Kaushiki Chakraborty.

Folk artiste Santosh Barman of North Bengal was honoured with Sangeet Samman along with noted Baul artiste Rina Das, famous Jhumur artiste Tara Debi Mahato, noted Kirtan artiste Subal Das Bairagya, noted folk singer from Jangalmahal Lakshminarayan Murmu and Khonkar Mujibar Rahar, noted folk singer from Murshidabad. Ajay Chakraborty, Rashid Khan and Kaushiki Chakraborty sang the famous Thumri Yaad piya ki aaye by Ustad bade Golam Ali Khan, while Kumar Shanu paid tribute to Kishore Kumar by singing Amar shilpi tumi Kishore Kumar. Noted vocalists Haimanti Shukla, Shibaji Chatterjee, Arundhuti Homchowdhury, Monomoy Bhattacharya, Raghab Chatterjee and Saikat Mitra were present among others.

Suvaprasanna and litterateurs Abul Basar, Joy Goswami and Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri were present on the dais as well.

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