Demise of magician of Sarod - Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Demise of magician of Sarod – Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

The nation pays homage to the departed soul of Magician of Sarod – Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who died yesterday at an age of 87. He died in his own house at Sanfransisco due to failure of kidneys. He had glorified India’s face in the international arena with his brilliance in the classical instrument Sarod.

His father Alauddin Khan was a genius with maihar gharana. Ali Akbar Khan was born on 14th April, 1922 in the village Shibpur in Kumilla. He learned classical music at an age of 3 years. He learned it from his father and uncle Fakir Abtabuddin. He first performed in a show in Allahabad at an age of 13 years.

In 1956 he created Ali Akbar College of Music in Kolkata. Later he opened more branches of the same college of music in US and Switzerland. From 1965, he regularly took musical classes in US. At the same time with his unique creations in the world of classical music he attracted attention of legendary directors of India like Satyajit Ray and Tapan Sinha.

Satyajit Ray used the brilliant skills of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan in Chabi Biswas’s film Debi. In that film Ustad Ai Akbar Khan was the music director. Chabi Biswas saw Goddess Kali in the body of Sharmila Tagore, his daughter in law in the film. Ali Akbar Khan’s theme music in the film was appreciated within India and abroad.

In the early 60s, Ali Akbar Khan created wonders as music director in Tapan Sinha’s film Khudito Pashan. Tapan Sinha experimented with Tagore’s epic literature. Arundhuti Debi, the powerful actress in the film came in the dreams of Soumitra Chatterji. Ali Akbar Khan’s music reminded people of the medieval period during the rule of many nawabs.

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan also composed music in Bartalucchi’s film Little Buddha, Ivory Merchant’s film House Holders and Chetan Anand’s film Andhia. He left a lot of brilliant students of Sarod including Nikhil Banerjee, Ashish Khan, Alam Khan, to name a few, who are carrying forward his legacy.

Ali Akbar Khan created gems with Pandit Ravi Shankar, the magician of Sitar. Their combined performances made the intellectual audience speechless in different parts of the world. He even composed music for eminent classical singer Ustad Amir Khan. The listeners all across the world pay homage to the genius of Sarod who had made India proud with his brilliance in creative music.

Review of Uttam Kumar's Bicharak.

Review of Uttam Kumar’s Bicharak.

Bicharak was Uttam Kumar’s successful film based on the story of legendary writer Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay and director Prabhat Mukherjee. Prabhat Mukherjee was the husband of Aristocrat actress Arundhuti Debi. He died at an early age and Arundhuti Debi married renowned director Tapan Sinha later.

Bicharak was the story where Uttam Kumar was unhappy with his marital life with the wife played by Deepti Roy. Arundhuti Debi was the cousin sister of Deepti Roy, who was highly educated, and upstart. She played tennis with Uttam Kumar. Deepti Roy became jealous about Arundhuti Debi and created unrest in the family with Uttam Kumar.

One day when fire broke out in the room of Deepti Roy, Uttam Kumar saved himself and fell to help his wife to come out of the fire. Uttam Kumar married Arundhuti Debi and settled as judge later one. One day he witnessed a case filed in his court having the same type of fact situation. Chabi Biswas made submission before the Court explaining the fact situation. The performance of Chabi Biswas in the respective role was brilliant by every acting standard.

He submitted before the judge that two brothers were attached to a girl and loved her equally. When both the brothers well travelling on boat, the brother who new swimming threw the other brother into the river knowing that he could not swim. He died as a result of it. In plain eyes it was a case of accident, but the circumstances proved the fact that it was a murder. There was motive present in the mind of the younger brother, that was to marry the girl, and for that reason he killed his brother.

While adjudicating this case Uttam Kumar recollected his experience, when his first wife Deepti Roy stretched her hand when fire broke out and he felled to save her. He shared his experience with Arundhuti Debi who asked him to pray to God to forgive him.

The film was based on reflections of mind and the intellectual crowd appreciated the film. Uttam Kumar, Arundhuti Debi and Deepti Roy were sublime in their respective roles. The music given by Timir Boron was also impressive with Rabindrasangeet like “jokhon prothom meliche koli amar mollikabone”.

The film should be restored to mark the grand creation of Prabhat Mukherjee, a creative director of Bengali films of the 50s.