Shyama

Celebrating Tagore in Stratford with a screening of Shyama

Shyama, Obhi Chatterjee’s feature film version of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s classic Bengali dance musical, will be part of the Stratford Poetry Festival’s tribute to the Indian poet, philosopher, artist and composer on his birth anniversary. The film will be introduced by a live programme featuring Kaberi, Jayanta and Obhi Chatterjee.

Through poetry, songs and dance, the live programme narrated by Obhi Chatterjee will explore Tagore’s creative journey from poetry to dance. Shyama tells the story of a court dancer who falls in love with a foreign merchant, who is falsely imprisoned and faces execution ... unless Shyama accepts her admirer’s offer to take the merchant’s place. Written in 1939, Shyama was Tagore’s last major work for the stage. Perhaps best described as a cross between opera and ballet, it reflects his artistic and philosophical reaction to both the turbulence of pre-Independence India and Hitler’s persecution of Jews in Germany.

The film features leading dancers, singers and musicians from Tagore’s home town of Santiniketan. Kaberi Chatterjee dances the title role of Shyama, the court dancer, whose songs are performed by Manini Mukhopadhyay Bagchi. TS Vasunni dances the role of Bojroshen, the foreign merchant, whose songs are performed by Jayanta Chatterjee.

Announcing the event, the Director of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Dr Diana Owen, said: "We are delighted to be able to present this unique work as part of our 2009 Poetry Festival and hope that people will join us on Saturday to celebrate Tagore's Birthday here at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Shyama is a very special tribute of poetry and performance which I hope will introduce more people to the work of Tagore, and also highlight the influence that Shakespeare still holds for artists across the globe."

Kaberi Chatterjee added: “We are very pleased to have been invited to present Shyama at the Stratford Poetry Festival. Shyama and Tagore are held by many of the 230 million Bengali-speakers around the world in the same light as, for example, Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare in the English-speaking world.”

The celebration will be held at 2pm on Saturday, 9 May at the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon. There will be a small ceremony after the film with more of Tagore’s songs at the bust of Tagore in the garden of Shakespeare’s Birthplace.

English translation of Shyama goes on sale

The English translation of Shyama by Rabindranath Tagore, developed by Jayanta, Obhi and Kaberi Chatterjee for the subtitles of the film version of Shyama is now available as a booklet. The script is introduced by Obhi Chatterjee, who directed the film version of Shyama.

Announcing the publication, Shyama star and producer Kaberi Chatterjee said, "While making Shyama, we realised that there were no published English translations of it. Since several people who have seen the film have commented on the beauty of the English text, we thought we should publish our translation in it's own right." The book (ISBN 1440402043) can be ordered from CreateSpace and will soon be available from amazon.com .

Shyama producer and director launch video podcast series

Shyama producer/star Kaberi Chatterjee and director Obhi Chatterjee have launched a 10-part video podcast series to promote the film. In the first, 10-minute episode of the Shyama podcast, they give an update on the release of Shyama, provide background about how the Nobel prize-winning poet and philosopher, Rabindranath Tagore, came to write dance musicals and explain why they made an authentic film version of Shyama. The episode ends with a 30-second clip from the opening scene of the English version of the film.

Each episode in the weekly series will include a release update, background about Shyama, information about the making of Shyama and a 30-second clip from the film. The episodes are listed under 'Shyama podcast' on the iTunes Store, from which the episodes can be downloaded to an iPhone/iPod. They will also be available on the film website www.shyamathemovie.com, and uploaded using TubeMogul to a variety of video-sharing platforms including YouTube, MySpace and Viddler.

Explaining the reasons behind the podcast series, Kaberi Chatterjee said "After test screenings of the film, audiences were fascinated by the historical background of the dance form they saw in Shyama and asked us to find a way of publicising it. We liked the idea of using a podcast to promote a specialised film developed by Four Eyed Monsters' filmmakers Arin Crumley and Susan Buice. As a result, we've been planning to create the Shyama podcast for some time, which is why their names appear in the acknowledgements at the end of Shyama.'