Thirteen winters ago, on 24th January 2011, I attended the The Dover Lane Music Conference for the last time, along with my parents. That was a significant phase of my life as I was on the cusp of starting my professional career and was about to bid adieu to Calcutta and move out into the big bad world. It was also the time when I had newly joined this social network called Facebook. As I look back into my Facebook timeline today and parse through the uploaded photos, I stumble across the fact that my Facebook post from that period actually carried the memories of the magical night including a snippet alluding to Ustaad Rashid Khan who was one of the four performing artists.
The night started with danseuse Yamini Reddy performing to Raaga Nata Bhairavi. Born to the legendary Kuchipudi exponents, Padma Bhushans Raja and Radha Reddy, Yamini has got dance in inheritance from her parents and she lived up to her genes with her beguiling mudras. Then came Kaushiki Chakraborty, daughter of Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty , who enthralled the audience with her rendition of bandish in Raaga Pahari and Raaga Kaunsi Kanhra. Next up was Amaan Ali Bangash who mesmerised us with Sarod recital of a bandish composed by his father Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan. He had his mother Subhalakshmi Khan in the front row as audience.
There is a saying in Bengali .. “ওস্তাদের মার শেষ রাতে” and the unforgettable Musical Soiree was rounded off with Ustaad Ustad Rashid Khan coming up with powerhouse performances of Raaga Lalit and Raaga Ahir Bhairav as the night slowly gave way to dawn.
Rashid Khan was always a maverick and a musical genius in equal measures. But then he was destined for greatness. After all, he carried the flattering endorsement of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan called him a “Prodigy” !! For listeners, it was Rashid’s ability to stir profound exclamations – of love, devotion and reverence – that set him apart. Hearing him sing was a beautiful surprise, as he would switch between the lyrical and soft, before suddenly bursting into an intricate taan – the technique of improvising with rapid melodic passages. His voice had a honey-like warmth that grabbed listeners the instant he sang the first note. He could sing the slow tempo alaap with the meditative quality of an Ustaad Amir Khan and move seamlessly into a fast-tempoed tarana or a romantic thumri like ‘Yaad Piya Ki Aaye’. Inside the sanctum sanctorum of Indian Classical Music, Rashid Khan was the “prince of modernism” who showed complete respect to classical forms but didn’t hesitate to “blur the distinctions between mainstream genres”.
On that fateful day , as the sun broke out , his exquisite exposition of Raag Ahir Bhairav – usually sung as the first Prahr of the morning – didn’t leave me for days. In fact it stayed with me and continues to reverberate in my subconscious and has strangely become an abiding memory of Calcutta winters that I will carry till my last breath.
‘Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter’.
~ John Keats
We mourn the passing of Ustaad Rashid Khan, one of the greatest vocalists of Hindustani classical music, may be we mourn the passing of his legacy of perfection as well
At Indendencia Street, in downtown Guadalajara, a sign was placed on the ANDA Theatre: “Hoje! Não trabalhamos porque vamos ver Pelé”, translated “Today! We don’t work because we’re going to see Pelé”.
At the end of the 1970 World Cup, the English newspaper The Sunday Times published a historic headline: “How do you spell Pelé? GOD”. In the glorious championship in Mexico, Pelé showed Brazilian football to the world, like no one else, and made a city stop working to watch him. In 2019, the official page of Santos, the club where the player made history, joked with the photo: “ Work dignifies the man, but seeing Pelé on the field dignifies him even more. Privileged are those who had the chance to live this unforgettable experience”.
Pelé was one of the first global sporting superstars who transcended continents, admired for his wizardry and sometimes criticized for his political stance, or the lack of it. Pelé’s greatness can be measured by the simple fact that he could make football a spectacle of natural grace and beauty when he missed as much as when he scored. He was the national treasure who once managed to bring about a 48-hour ceasefire between two warring factions during the Nigerian civil war in the 1960s, just so they could watch Pelé play in an exhibition game in Lagos. He was also the person who played a big part in Calcutta hosting him and the New York Cosmos during its tour of Asia in 1977. Pelé played in that game against Mohun Bagan at the Eden Gardens for about half an hour, in the winter of his career and far from his best, but still a turnout of 80,000 mesmerized.
Pelé suffered World Cup disappointments too, none more than when he was brutally kicked out of the competition in England in 1966. He left the scene of the 3-1 defeat by Portugal at Goodison Park draped in a blanket after a succession of fouls that left him limping on one leg, with his right knee heavily bandaged. That knee injury was caused by earlier savage challenges in Brazil’s first game against Bulgaria and Pelé was so disgusted by his treatment that he vowed never to play in another World Cup – a decision the game was grateful he later reversed.
Brazil’s 1970 World Cup win was the pinnacle of Pelé ‘s career. He was the focal point of a dream team that has become enshrined in the game’s history. Pelé may have been the headline act but he was accompanied by names such as Rivelino, Jairzinho, Tostao and Gerson, as well as the great captain and leader Carlos Alberto. Testimony to Pelé ‘s brilliance are two occasions in the 1970 Mexico World Cup when he failed to score – and yet are used to this day as prime exhibits of the skill, power, elegance and mental speed and agility that mark him out as arguably the greatest to have ever graced the game. The first came in Brazil’s opening group game against Czechoslovakia when Pelé , from several yards inside the centre circle in his own half, received the ball languidly then spotted keeper Ivo Viktor off his line. In an elegant, instinctive swing of his right boot, he sent the ball in a high arc towards goal, landing inches wide, with the panicking Viktor making a scrambling retreat before the relief of realising he had not been embarrassed by Pelé ‘s genius. Fast forward to the semi-final against Uruguay, again in Guadalajara, when Pelé raced at full speed on to Tostao’s pass, yet still had the presence of mind to run past keeper Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, also allowing the ball to run past the pair. The keeper had been sold perhaps the greatest dummy in World Cup history. Sadly, the angle was subsequently too tight for Pelé to score but the moment is still replayed whenever World Cups are relived and as the late, great BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme, probably taken as much by surprise as Mazurkiewicz, said in that wonderful moment: “What genius. Incredible.”
Brazil, in 1888, was the last Western country to abolish slavery, and Pelé was born just 52 years later, a poor Black child who started out life shining shoes. Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born on Oct. 23, 1940, in Três Corações, a tiny rural town in the state of Minas Gerais. His parents named him Edson in tribute to Thomas Edison. (Electricity had come to the town shortly before Pelé was born.) When he was about 7, he began shining shoes at the local railway station to supplement the family’s income. One of Pelé’s earliest memories was of seeing his father, while listening to the radio, cry when Brazil lost to Uruguay, 2-1, in the deciding match of the 1950 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. The game is still remembered as a national calamity. Pelé recalled telling his father that he would one day grow up to win the World Cup for Brazil. And he did in 1958. He had become such a hero that, in 1961, to ward off European teams eager to buy his contract rights, the Brazilian government passed a resolution declaring him a non-exportable national treasure. I am not joking. You can check the records !!! When Pelé was about to retire from Santos in the early 1970s, Henry A. Kissinger, the United States secretary of state at the time, wrote to the Brazilian government asking it to release Pelé to play in the United States as a way to help promote soccer, and Brazil, in America.
In his 21-year career, Pelé — born Edson Arantes do Nascimento — scored 1,283 goals in 1,367 professional matches, including 77 goals for the Brazilian national team. Many of those goals became legendary, but Pelé’s influence on the sport went well beyond scoring. He helped create and promote what he later called “o jogo bonito” — the beautiful game — a style that valued clever ball control, inventive pinpoint passing and a voracious appetite for attacking. Pelé not only played it better than anyone; he also championed it around the world. Among his athletic assets was a remarkable center of gravity; as he ran, swerved, sprinted or backpedalled, his midriff seemed never to move, while his hips and his upper body swiveled around it. He could accelerate, decelerate or pivot in a flash. Off-balance or not, he could lash the ball accurately with either foot. Relatively small, at 5 feet 8 inches, he could nevertheless leap exceptionally high, often seeming to hang in the air to put power behind a header.
How does one define an ICON? A person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration They say Muhammad Ali was arguably the greatest sports personality of all time. Pelé was that and more. In his pomp, Pelé was Ali from the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’, Jesse Owens in Berlin Olympics. He was Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, Tiger Woods at Augusta, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps in Beijing, London and Rio. All rolled into one, many times over!! Maybe it’s best to let pop-culture icon Andy Warhol define Pelé’s legacy in his own inimitable fashion,
“Pelé is one of the few who contradicted my theory,” “Instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.”
The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines Detective as someone whose job is to discover information about crimes and find out who is responsible for them.
Fair enough I guess. And that is how even most of us picture any private detective in our minds. All of us have their own favourites. Some swear by the pipe-smoker from Baker Street , some are mesmerized by the antics of a certain elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as a consulting detective, others love this impeccably attired Belgian gentleman with a sensitive stomach and a penchant for good food. If you are still to figure out who these characters are (I am in the detective mode right now , hence the clues 🙂 ), I was referring to Sherlock Holmes , Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.
But every Bong boy/girl worth his/her salt will obviously remind me to add two more names to this illustrious list. One is the inimitable Prodosh C Mitter (Feluda) , Satyajit Ray ‘s immortal creation and the other of course is the one I will be dwelling at length now , a fictional detective in Bengali literature created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. And he goes by the name Bakshi .. Byomkesh Bakshi🙂
I grew up in an India of the 90s (yes the Nostalgic Nineties the good ol days). Those were my wonder years you see. And there was this detective serial which premiered on DD1 one fine Thursday at 9 PM , the year 1993. Thanks to Basu Chatterjee’s direction and Rajit Kapur’s fine acting , Byomkesh suddenly became a national sensation. In fact, every time I think of Byomkesh , the background score still rings in my ears. That was my first tryst with this Calcutta-based detective and the only instance till date where I have seen the television adaptation before I read the actual book. By the time I was in my teens, I had finished Byomkesh Shamogro (the omnibus) in addition to what Agatha Christie , Arthur Conan Doyle and Ray had to offer.
In the Bengali consciousness, Byomkesh had played second fiddle to Feluda till the time Manik Babu was around with the honourable exception of Chiriyakhana , where Ray consciously chose Uttam Kumar, the matinee idol to essay the role of the super sleuth over his perennial favourite Soumitro Chatterjee who has since achieved cult status portraying Feluda on the big screen. All that changed with the TV series which not only catapulted Sharadindu Babu and his creation to nationwide recognition but also announced the arrival of a private investigator who was devoid of any idiosyncrasies (remember the carrot munching Karamchand) and went about his business without a fuss.
Come 2014, the detective parlance had undergone a sea-change. Most of us were either busy getting Sherlocked or were swearing by the True Detective . Suddenly the old-world charm of the erstwhile detective had vanished into thin air. And where was Byomkesh ?? (Sorry Mr. Anjan Dutta, your trilogy didn’t make the cut). Till one fine day, Yash Raj Films decided that they were fed up with the formula (read Swiss locales and white chiffon sarees) . Enter Dibakar Banerjee (referred to as DB from now on) and voila, they have their partner-in-crime grin emoticon The trailers only added to the anticipation and the fact that the script was in the safe hands of DB, the non-resident Bong (of Khosla Ka Ghosla , Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, LSD & Shanghai fame) made it doubly reassuring. So finally, yesterday, on a Good Friday, I kept my date with this brilliant Satyanneshi (Seeker of Truth) and I must admit that I came out greatly satisfied 🙂
Let me first highlight a few aspects which make Detective Byomkesh Bakshy ! (yes there is an exclamation in the title) stand out. Will discuss the cons later (minor).
The film is set in the backdrop of 1940s Calcutta. Yes, when Calcutta was still the second city of the Empire after London and the Calcutta Police was called the Scotland Yard of the East. The imagery of the Bow Barracks , the China Town and the Coffee House , all add to that indescribable feeling of nostalgia. To any pure-bred Calcatian like me, these images are a relic of the golden past from a time-warped city. And we still cherish them !! Dibakar succeeds in recreating the contemporary milieu and the darkness of WW2 and the constant air raids only heighten the reality quotient. The director has loosely based his script on the debut story সত্যান্বেষী but apart from the basic premise, everything else has been changed as per his cinematic vision and script. And every director in my humble opinion should have those cinematic liberties to operate with. Hence the hostel-owner and philanthropic doctor, Anukul Babu who peddles cocaine in the garb of his homeopathy trade, here becomes Yang Guan, the king-pin of a thriving drug-cartel who connives with the Japanese army as they plan to invade Calcutta and deliver a death blow to the Brits. The plot revolves around the murder of Bhuvan Banerjee (shown as Ajith’s father), a renowned chemist and Yang’s accomplice while in the original story it is the murder of Ashwini Babu, a hostel inmate, that triggeres the chain of events. Also in the course of events, Satyabati is introduced who later becomes his wife (check the end credits , you will see the marriage invitation 🙂 ) whereas in Sharadendu Babu’s story, Satyabati’s character is placed the fifth story of the series অর্থমনর্থম্. But who is complaining. As long as the essence of the classic detective is retained and the sub-plots add up to create the aura and thrill and romantic mysticism of war-ravaged Calcutta .. I am fine 🙂 DB executes the same to perfection and you get delightful yet subtle entertainment as the end product. The acting department is replete with fine performances from Sushant Singh Rajput as the detective himself , Anand Tiwari as his side-kick and ever-loyal friend Ajit, Neeraj Kabi as Dr. Anukul Guha / Yang Guan. For me Neeraj’s performance as the evil mastermind and Byomkesh’s nemesis is fantastic and brings out the same kind of intensity like in the exchange that Holmes shares with Professor Moriarty. Found Swastika Mukherjee’s portrayal of Anguri Devi, a dancer and spy, as insipid and nowhere close to Mata Hari, the Frisian exotic dancer and an enduring archetype of the femme fatale, that her role is rumoured to be modelled on. Divya Menon as Byomkesh’s love interest Satyabati, Meiyang Chang as the police informer Kanai Dao, Takanori Kikuchi as Dr. Watanabe and Mark Bennington as Deputy Commissioner Wilkie , all do justice to their roles.
Finally, a few accolades have to be reserved for the director. DB has done a splendid job and the film is fit for an international release. Not only do you get to romance the Calcutta of yore but the plot lends an international espionage crime thriller touch in what would have been otherwise a strictly native premise. Kudos to DB for the script. In fact Bollywood now might have its own Guy Ritchie in Dibakar Banerjee. Hats off to DB for his continued experiments with the sound-track.The background score will enthrall you as it brings to life the genre of “neo-noir meets crime thriller” and adds the right doses of chutzpah. The music actually tries to bind the past with the present-day modern techno sound in the same mould as The Great Gatsby OST designed by rapper-producer Jay-Z. It is a unique collection of songs – from the metal of “Life’s A B***h” to the swing of “Calcutta Kiss”. Then there is the amazing blend of classical (thumri vocals by playback singer Usri Banerjee ) and psychedelic synthetic pop by Mumbai alt punk act BLEK in “Byomkesh In Love” which again is my personal favourite. Both “Chase in China Town” and “Yang Guan Lives” matches the adrenaline rush that the project requires. A big Thumbs Up to DBB’s music. Kya Baat !! For me the film’s highlight is actually the climax where Byomkesh assembles all the characters in the hostel and finally unravels the true identity of Dr. Guha followed by the gory bloodshed in the ensuing gang-war. Dr.Guha aka Yang Guan lives to see another day and the seeds of a riveting rivalry are sown. Yes , both me and the director are hinting at the mouth-watering prospect of a sequel.
Now as far as the misses are concerned, I am in a particularly lenient mood. So won’t complain too much. Sushant could have been a little more assertive in his demeanor and how dare you show the cigarette-smoking detective munching on a bunch of potato fries with tea at the The Indian Coffee House. Dibakar must have taken our craving for the Aloo Bhaja a tad too seriously. Of-course the timely mention of The Statesman Ltd. and Bata ticks all the right boxes in our hearts 😀
To conclude, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is beguiling, captivating and delightfully delectable .. and the Calcutta Kiss is waiting to wrap you in her warm embrace 🙂 😛
By the way, have a great Easter Sunday everyone. Cheers !!
Do you know what time it is
Don’t know what time it is
Don’t care what time it is
‘coz it’s time for cal Calcutta kiss
P.S. Byomkesh Bakshi has been mentioned in the 2014 episode “The Mommy Observation” of the US TV series The Big Bang Theory. The character Bernadette Rostenkowski refers Bakshi as Indian Sherlock Holmes while Raj Koothrappali refers Sherlock as the English Byomkesh Bakshi 🙂
The simplicity of winter has a deep moral. The return of Nature, after such a career of splendor and prodigality, to habits so simple and austere, is not lost either upon the head or the heart. It is the philosopher … Continue reading →
“In those years before mobile phones, email and Skype, travelers depended on the rudimentary communications system known as the postcard. Other methods–the long-distance phone call, the telegram–were marked “For Emergency Use Only.” So my parents waved me off into the … Continue reading →
Calcutta Chromosome 