Several personalities from the Bengali film industry met at a heritage theatre in the city today to celebrate Bengali New Year.
In the not so distant past, celebrities like Uttam Kumar, Hemanta Mukherjee, Chabi Biswas and others met at a place of their liking to spend hours chatting together.
Over time the "adda", a favourite pastime of Bengalis till even the 80s, became out of fashion, either due to pressures of modern age or due to lack of patronage.
In a bid to recreate that flavour of the past, movie celebrities joined in an adda session at the popular Basusree theatre in a true "baithaki" style.
The participants included singers Arati Mukherjee, Haimanti Shukla, Usha Uthup and Amit Kumar, actors Prosenjit Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta and singer-turned Union minister Babul Supriyo.
"I do faintly recall having accompanied my father (Biswajit Chatterjee) during 'Poila Boisakh' celebrations. This invokes nostalgia," Prosenjit said.
"Multiplexes can't replace the romance of a single screen theatre where the audience interaction can be more lively. Bengali culture and traditions will thrive if theatres such as Basusree survive," Prosenjit pointed out.
Singer Haimanti Shukla said, "I remember how I felt as a newcomer in the company of heavyweights like Uttam Kumar, Hemantada, Sandhya Mukherjee, Bhanu Bandyopadhyay. It was more rejuvenating than my first recording session which I still remember."
Usha Uthup rued, "Don't know why I was left out of the festivities in those days. Now hope I will be a regular in this adda here in future."
Union minister Babul Supriyo, talking about the 'Nabo Barsho' celebrations, said, "This is one important day and an important occasion. Hope it will be a regular affair."
"We have a long-standing association with Babul-da who used to come to Basusree to attend musical soirees for a long time," one of the present generation owners of the theatre set up in 1947, Anirban Basu said.
The Poila Baisakh baithak also marked the book launch of 'Tochan Ghosh er Jalsha Ghaar', a biographical sketch based on the pioneering Bengali Impresario by the glitterati.
