The Sojourn – Bowing to the Gurus
Celebrate the Bengali New Year with The Sojourn – The Story at Heaven, a cultural extravaganza conceived by Kathak exponent Tanni Choudhury, featuring Pt Tarun Bhattacharya, Pt Ronu Majumdar, Guru Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee, and Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee at G.D. Birla Sabhagar on 24 April 2025.
By Jove, if there was ever an evening to dust off your finest kurta or saree and toddle along to a venue steeped in culture and class, it’s this one.
On the 24th of April 2025, as Bengalis ring in the New Year with the usual fanfare, G.D. Birla Sabhagar will witness something rather extraordinary—The Sojourn – The Story at Heaven. It’s not just a cultural evening; it’s an artistic hug from the heavens, courtesy of none other than the redoubtable Tanni Choudhury, who seems to have tapped straight into the divine for this one.
Now, Tanni’s no stranger to the stage. With a Kathak career that’s clocked more stage miles than a British Airways frequent flyer, she’s seen it all, spun through it all, and pirouetted past most of it with panache. But this one’s personal. This time, she’s paying homage to her gurus — the luminous Vidushi Amita Dutta and the ever-radiant Guru Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee, the man whose ghungroos have probably echoed through more hearts than most love poems.
Speaking of Ashimbandhu, the chap’s hitting his diamond jubilee. Sixty years of lighting up the stage with the kind of Kathak that makes your spine tingle and your aunt cry into her dupatta. And lo and behold, he’ll be performing too! That’s right — the Kathak wizard himself, live on stage. Frankly, it’s enough to make one consider learning a teen taal or two.
But hang on to your hats — there’s more. The celestial duo of Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya (on the santoor) and Pandit Ronu Majumdar (with his mesmerising flute), have miraculously agreed to descend from their musical Olympus and grace us mere mortals with a performance. One wonders whether Tanni had to offer them laddoos or simply her irresistible charm, but either way, we’re the lucky beneficiaries.
The storytelling bit of the evening comes with a twist. Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee, a name that pops up more frequently than WhatsApp forwards, will lend his voice and verve to the narration. Expect theatrical flourishes, poetic interludes, and perhaps the odd philosophical nugget thrown in for good measure.
Tanni herself puts it rather poetically —
“That we are all split souls, defined by our duality, is obvious. So are our dreams, oscillating between the mundane and the magnificent. I always opt for the latter.”
Good choice, that. After all, who fancies the mundane when you could have maestros making music that could summon tears from a stone?
This New Year’s celebration isn’t just another run-of-the-mill programme with samosas in the interval and polite applause at the end. No, this is theatre, music, dance, and soul-searching all rolled into one sari-clad, santoor-strummed, flute-blessed package.
So, dust off your diary, mark the date, and perhaps book a cab early (Kolkata traffic, after all, is not for the faint-hearted). Come with your heart open and your mobile on silent. You’ll need all your senses to take in what promises to be an evening straight out of a celestial script.
Where: G.D. Birla Sabhagar
When: 24 April 2025, 6:30 PM sharp (well, Bengali sharp)
Why: Because art this sublime doesn’t come knocking every New Year.
What's Your Reaction?
