This Festive Season, Mahishasur Mardini Takes on The World!
Festivities come and go, but the vibes often remain. An enterprising group in a faraway land, San Francisco to be precise, chose to recreate the flavour of this vibe in an honest and dedicated manner.
Festivities might have come to a standstill, but the festive vibes don’t seem to have died for many. The year 2020 has been a year of paradox. While it put the entire mankind on a house arrest, away from human contact, it also opened up new avenues of connecting with people for better.
It is amidst these times of crisis, that a handful of artistes from the San Francisco Bay Area, have kept aside all the challenges that this year has thrown in, and have recreated the old school nostalgia of ‘Mahishasur Mardini’.
Led by Sonali Bhattacharya, the team of artistes has woven up magic on the tapestry of time. This year, when festivities have been restricted, Sonali and her team have taken a step forward to materialize their labour of love and passion into a digital production to showcase it to the global audience.
The 25 year- old legacy of upholding the tradition of Durga Puja in faraway land is commendable. However, to take the festive vibes a step ahead in these times of pandemic is beyond being brave.
Over the years, the team has only performed in the closed doors or their auditoriums, but this puja they have taken a step forward to going digital and presenting their work of love and hard work to the global audience. The digital concert was a free-to-watch event for all to enjoy LIVE from the Carpe Diem Facebook page.
The event featured artistes of both Indian and American origin. The performing artistes, Arpita Chattopadhyay, Sucheta Basu, Prasenjit Biswas, Sudip Nag, Shubho Sengupta, Sanjib Goswami, Biswapesh Chattopadhyay, Pradosh Sarkar, Brinda Govindan, Ben Kunin, and Wallace Harvey, including the director, Sonali Bhattacharya are all working professionals who pursue music as their passion and have crafted such odes of love over the years to mark the festivities.
Every artist has put in their best to put up this timeless piece into a contemporary presentation, while retaining the essence of its sanctity and reverent relevance in the festive times. The musical was by far no less than its original counterpart presented by Pankaj Mullick and Birendra Krishna Bhadra years ago. The nostalgia of radio from the yesteryears was well recreated in modern times by the team.
Since Carpe Diem has always supported artistes to present their best, they took up the initiative of presenting Mahishasur Mardini digitally.
Despite the fact that India witnesses several cultural performances during the festivity, for Indians abroad these occasions are their little way of connecting to their roots and meet fellow Indians in the faraway land.
Since the pandemic has put us all on a restriction, Carpe Diem joined hands with the team and gave them a platform to present their production for the first time ever outside the premises of their auditoriums in the West to the global audience.
The musical presentation has been applauded by the audience across the globe and loved by the Indian audience as well. In the times, when the festive vibes haven’t been as impactful as always, this musical is a treat for all and brings back the old charm of the original musical.