Poetry Perfect

If the only memories you have of poetry are painful Monday tests and stiff elocution routines at the Friday school assembly, a handful of people in the city is trying hard to splash colour on them.

Poetry, with a little help from music, is set to send more hearts aflutter

If the only memories you have of poetry are painful Monday tests and stiff elocution routines at the Friday school assembly, a handful of people in the city is trying hard to splash colour on them. The concept of recitation bands has been doing the rounds of the city, for quite some time now, but is yet to paint the town red, if the number of patrons of the same is anything to go by. However, that is hardly a dampener to the spirits of the few who have taken it upon themselves to give poetry, especially Bengali poetry, the makeover it was crying for.

8220;For a long time, poetry and recitation, used to be considered an elitist pastime,8221; says Sanoli of recitation band Mahul. Apart from individual elocutionists, like Bratati Bandyopadhyay, poetry was never quite embraced by performers. 8220;People hardly browse and look for poetry anymore. But there8217;s a vast body of work, especially in Bengali, that this generation is completely unaware of,8221; says Sanoli. So, Mahul, a five-member band, was formed with the idea to jazz up poetry performances and take them beyond the regular somber recitals.

Sovan Sundar Basu, created Brishti, considered the first recitation band in India, following the footsteps of British poetry performer Benjamin Zephaniah. 8220;I had always been in awe of him. And recently I met him while touring Europe,8221; says Basu. And Zephaniah gave Basu the magic formula of taking poetry to more people 8212; music.

8220;We don8217;t follow a prefixed track, neither copy popular music. We introduce a sing-along sort of tune, that draws attention to the lyrics more than the music,8221; says Sanoli of Mahul. It8217;s not a full-fledged song that you get to hear, but the poem revved up for a live audience with sounds. Basu points at the several Bangla bands, if you fail to understand their brand of music or poetry. 8220;Most of them don8217;t sing flawless songs. The music is not all important,8221; says Basu. Music here draws your attention to poetry.

Both the bands have worked on classics like Tagore and Sukumar Ray8217;s poems, and have also strung to tune contemporaries like Joy Goswami, Subodh Sarkar and Srijato. 8220;We have a large chunk of our work dedicated to Sukumar Ray. It8217;s important for children today to familiarize themselves with his classic brand of irony and humour,8221; says Sanoli.

However, it8217;s evident that people have not followed Mahul or Brishti8217;s footsteps with an obsession we saw for Bangla bands. 8220;It8217;s still very difficult to sell the concept of recitation to live music as an entertainment product,8221; says Sanoli who claims to have performed to packed houses across the country. 8220;I wouldn8217;t say that people don8217;t appreciate our work but the concept needs to be marketed with more aggression for people to get even curious,8221; says Basu who has toured cities in Europe and the US with Brishti.

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To rake in the moolah and ensure more people take cue from their efforts, Mahul wants to organise a inter-school poetry performance contest. 8220;We are still on a sponsor hunt,8221; laughs Sanoli, who is now content with making animated videos to grab the eyeballs.