Bengali meet to bring together diff cultures

Nagpur: The one-day World Bengali Conference will be inaugurated at Vasantrao Deshpande Hall on June 24 at 9am. The event was revived after a gap of 25 years in 2015. This year, it will be inaugurated by Indrani Mukherjee, director Rabindra Sangeet Gaveshna Kendra, Shanti Niketan. The conference attempts to showcase the influence of various other languages on Bengali art, culture and literature.Officials, dignitaries and artists from different fields will be participating in it. Giving details of the conference, Dr BK Mukherjee, president and coordinator, said the highlight this year is the presentation of Rabindranath Tagore’s classic play ‘Choker Bali’ by Mounita Mukherjee of Akash Bangla, Sakher Theatre of Mumbai. Famous football players PK Bannerjee and Thulsidas Balaraman will be present at the event. Maya Chakraborty will present Rabindra Sangeet in Bengali and Sarojini Sil will present it in Nepalese.
The literature segment will feature Mrunalini Kelkar, noted Marathi novelist, who has translated 28 Bengali novels along with Indrani Mukherjee, Satyabati Giri and Manisha Bannerjee. This is an effort to bring novelists of Maharashtra and Bengal closer, Mukherjee explained.
Another highlight is locally produced play ‘Nari Shakti’, which will have 38 artists of which 19 are non-Bengalis. “Our effort is to amalgamate various cultures. Bengalis are living in so many places across the world and they imbibe the local cultures. This is a platform where they will share their experiences,” Mukherjee said. Nari Shakti will be a blend of narration in Bengali, Braja Bhasa, Hindi and Sanskrit, which will showcase the strength of various Indian languages. “Local artists do not get a platform to showcase their talent. Our effort is to provide them this opportunity,” Mukherjee said.
The event is being held in the memory of Ashalata Devi and Dr Sushil Chandra Mukherjee and will be telecast live to 66 countries by a regional language channel.