The two-day programme was inaugurated on Thursday.

 

JRSSP, a platform of Tagore singers, organises Rabindra Utsab every year. This year’s event featured performances of around 150 singers.

 

The event began with Tagore singers taking their seats on the stage. Then came the group performance of Biswa shathey jogey jethaye bihaar—the theme song of the festival. With the theme song playing at the background, Dr Sanjida Khatun, pesident of Chhayanaut, inaugurated the festival with lighting of Maangal Pradip.

 

Then a discussion was held. Shahjahan Faruk, president of JRSSP Dhaka, delivered the welcome speech, Dr Sanjida Khatun gave the inaugural speech and Prof Shirajul Islam Chowdhury spoke on Tagore’s thoughts on education.

 

The cultural evening which followed the discussion was full of attractions and made the programme highly enjoyable. The first day’s event began with performances of group songs Anando dhani jagao gaganey and Andhokarer utso hotey utsharito alo. Solo performances were done by Mita Haque, Aditi Mohshin, Shajed Akbar, Shama Rahman, Nandita Sarkar and others.

 

Nearly 30 Tagore singers took to the stage in turns and performed Tagore songs, much to the delight of the audience at the National Theatre Main Hall.

 

Group performances were staged by artistes from music school Pratiti and Shurer Dhara. Artistes from Dhriti and Nritya Nandan staged dance performances.

 

The event also featured recitation of Tagore’s Karno-Kunti Shanbad by Bhashwar Bandyopadhyay and Shumona Bishwas. The first day of the festival concluded with a group performance of the song, Antoromomo bikoshito koro.

 

The second and final day of the event featured a discussion, performances by Tagore artistes, dance performances, recitation and more.

A total of eight music schools of Dhaka performed at the event.