Download Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi launch Tagore`s

Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi
launch Tagore’s ‘Anant’ in
London
Friday 10th July 2015 marked the UK launch of ‘Anant’, a
compilation of songs first penned by Bengali cultural icon
Rabindranath Tagore, translated into Hindi by arguably India’s
greatest living poet Javed Akhtar, and brought to life through
the voice of writer, filmmaker and singer Sangeeta Datta with
music provided by the talented, London-based musician and
composer Soumik Datta.
Two years in the making, Anant is intended to take Tagore’s
precious and much-loved ‘Rabindra Sangeet’ (“Tagore’s Songs”),
which form an important part of Bengali culture, to a wider,
global audience and coincides with Tagore’s Nobel Centenary.
In Akhtar’s masterful hands, the songs have retained their
famously classical romanticism, evoked splendidly by Sangeeta
Datta who is trained in the pure tradition of Rabindra
Sangeet.
Speaking of the challenge of translating Tagore’s iconic
poems, Javed Akhtar said: “The very idea of translating Tagore
is intimidating because the name really overwhelms you. When
you listen to his poetry carefully, even if you don’t know
Bengali, the words overwhelm you in a very gentle manner, so
much so that it is difficult to be certain if you would be
able to translate that magic that is inherent in his poetry.
“And then when you come to the translation, when you
understand what he is writing, then you realize he is saying
the most heart-wrenching things in the simplest language. He’s
not being ‘clever’ with words at all. He merely relates what
he feels in the simplest manner and that simplicity is much
more effective than any complicated or any intricate or ornate
language. As a writer, I know that that simplicity is the most
difficult to achieve”.
Sangeeta Datta
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Soumik Datta – the gifted Sarod player best known for his
‘Circle of Sound’ compositions – was tasked with composing the
music for ‘Anant’. For the unenviable task, Soumik signed up
some of the best young musicians in London, including pianist
Zoe Rahman and her clarinettist brother Idris and tabla player
Sandy Man.
“With this project I couldn’t take the traditional route of
just sitting down and imagining the compositions in my head
and then writing it out as I would normally do. When I read
the translations, something moved me in each song. And that
feeling equated to a certain kind of sound or an instrument
and I could feel it. So what I did was to bring all these
amazing musicians together and unleashed them to try and get
that energy on tape”, Soumik said.
The result is a wonderfully evocative amalgamation of 100year-old poetry and classical and contemporary music styles.
Each song was preceded by a recitation – in English – of the
original poem by a host of different well-known personalities,
including the legendary actress and campaigner Shabana Azmi,
storyteller Seema Anand, academic Mukulika Banerjee and the
award-winning photographer Souvid Datta.
Anant was presented by Baithak UK, a not-for-profit arts
organization that brings the best of South Asian arts legacy
to young audiences in the UK, encouraging dialogue and debate
with masters and young practitioners to create new work. The
album is published by Zee Music and distributed by Sony.