Shuvaprasanna back with art festival in City of Joy

One hadn’t heard of him after the CBI gave him a  hot chase in the wake of the Saradha scam interrogations earlier this year. 

However, the veteran painter who is believed to be a close advisor of the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharjee is back in the public eye with a huge inter-city art festival(Artsacre Festival of Art) that will see Manu Parekh rubbing shoulders with Ganesh Haloi and a Soumitra Chatterjee play being featured along with a documentary by Goutam Ghose.

About 30 renowned artists from all over India have come together at Shuvaprasanna’s  Arts Acre to participate in the six-day workshop and cultural festival, which will also showcase a healthy dose of Bengali films, music, theatre and books. 

“Where else can you see Jogen Choudhury and Rameshwar Broota, Madhavi Parekh and Veer Munshi, Himmat Shah and Saroj Pal put paint to brush on canvas together?” Shuvaprasanna told Millennium Post.

Every evening, the Arts Acre amphitheatre(Arts Acre is located in Rajarhat)will see artists as well as connoisseurs gather to celebrate the cultural diversity of India. Goutam Ghose’s documentary on Bismillah Khan, Soumitra Chatterjee’s play,Kalmrigaya will feature along with Chau dance from Purulia performed by Dilip Mahato and his troupe along with a book launch by S G Vasudev, titled “Vriksha”. 

“A musical evening by Sourendra, Soumyajit and Debalina will feature on November 3. The festival has taken off on Sunday with a screening of the famous film, Samskara based on a  novel by U R Ananthamurthy,” said Shuvaprasanna.

The ArtsAcre Foundation was inaugurated on March 6, 2014 by Mamata Banerjee and saw luminaries from the world of art across India — Mahashweta Devi, Karan Singh,  Pandit Birju Maharaj, Anjolie  Ela Menon — celebrate the occasion. The museum of modern Bengal art and Indian modern art — with over 550 art works displayed — is a major draw for visiting arts at the festival.