Musings with the stars

Clockwise: Subir Nandi, Shibli Muhammad & Shamim Ara Neepa, Abida Sultana, Tauquir Ahmed, Shubhro Dev and Samina Chowdhury

Subir Nandi: One of the celebrated modern singers of the country, was in Cox's Bazar when we got in touch with him.

"Music represents a definite mood. When the human mind compulsively responds to certain moods it becomes timeless melody. That is why some compositions continue to enthrall over the ages," said Subir.

When asked about his favourite duets with co-artistes he said " So far I have done playbacks with a number of artistes, particularly with Sabina Yasmin, Abida Sultana and Shammi Akhtar. I have done a few playbacks with the reputed Indian singer Hoimanti Shukla as well. While presenting duets, the most important thing is to feel the song from within. One has to be very expressive. Otherwise it will be nothing more than mere words. Even in poetry the expression of joy, sadness or emotion has to be explicit. I have developed a rapport with my co-singers and that is possibly why our numbers were a great success."

Abida Sultana: She shares the same views. "During recording for the playbacks, an artiste has to be appraised of the mood, sequence of the film and the age of the heroine. Once you get to know these, feelings are generated automatically and there is no dearth of expression." she says.

As a couple, Abida and Rafiqul Islam are often seen performing together in different musicals. Abida has also paired with a number of singers beginning from Syed Abdul Hadi to Subir Nandi, Andrew Kishore, Shubro Dev, to the young generation singers Asif and Munir. Her famous songs she says are Choley cycle with Kishore, Bidhi Komol Koriya in the film Raj Lokhkhi Sri Kanta and Jey tuku shomoi tumi thako kachey and many more.

Tauquir Ahmed: "I have several favourite television plays that I acted in, such as Ferdous Hassan's Jhara Pata. In addition I remember the first drama serial that I had directed, titled Tomar Bashanto Diney, and Emdadul Haque Milon's Jato Durey Jai. The latter was a very popular drama serial in the 1990s. Shomi Kaiser was my co-star in that serial. However, Bipasha Hayat was my co-star in so many television plays that it is difficult to name them all. Romance is the most common element of television plays, which makes the production more attractive. If the presentation, cast, acting and the overall making of the play are standard, the play will attract the audience and become important milestones.

"However, the scenario is different in recent days. Despite many promising actors and technical support, today's television plays lack quality. The recent trend is to make comedies, which are not always up to the mark or even subtle. One-hour plays are not so frequent in recent days. And because of the trend of concentrating on mega serials, it is difficult for the audience to judge the quality of the plays. It is also a pity that very few romantic plays are seen on the small screen."

Shibli Muhammad: "I have performed with all the prominent female dancers since 1980s such as Shukla Sharkar, Zinnat Barkatullah, Sharmila Bandyopadhyaya, Tamanna Rahman and Deepa Khondokar. But Shamim Ara Neepa has been my co-artiste for the last 20 years. She is also a good friend and confidante. So, it is quite difficult to name a favourite single performance with her. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed performing in the dance drama Chitrangada with her and I also love to play the role of Arjun. To recount a memorable incident that occurred while I was performing with Neepa: Once when we got on stage, there was a near catastrophe when suddenly both of us realised that we could not remember the exact dance mudras. But largely because of the mutual understanding we performed in the show without making mistakes. What's more, the audience could not understand that we were actually 'creating' mudras instantly. We were smiling as we danced along."

Samina Chowdhury: "I usually perform in solo recitals and do not have too many duet songs to my credit. However, both Andrew Kishor and Kumar Bishwajit were my co-artistes in many playbacks. Both are very co-operative and friendly. While recording the title song of the movie Kakhono Megh Kakhono Brishti, we had a different experience. It took a long time to do the final recording because somehow none of us were satisfied with the final take. A very popular duet with Andrew Kishor was Amar Buker Modhyekhaney, which is my favourite number. Among the other songs I always love to sing Amaro to balbar kichhu achhey, Aj noy itihash and Janteycheona."

Shubhro Dev: He has been a very popular performer since the mid 1980s. Shubhro excels in romantic songs.This is what the crooner divulged about his duets with the leading female singers:

"Although I have performed so many duets with more or less all the eminent female singers, I believe my most popular duet is Neel Chadoa with Sabina Akhter Runa from the Shesh Chithi album which came out in 1989. The song was also frequently aired on TV. I have done duets with Baby Nazneen, Runa Laila, Sabina Yasmeen, Shakila Zafar, Kanak Champa and Samina Chowdhury, but I think I have done the most duets with Shakila. We have also performed together at numerous cultural events, concerts and shows. It is very obvious that the public enjoys our duets. Chiley Jey Amari is my favorite duet with Shakila. Ami Shat Shagor Paari Diye is a beautiful duet with Kanak Champa. With Samina Chowdhury a rendition of a renowned romantic English song Jimmy Protikhkhaye Thakbey, has been well appreciated.

I still remember my first duet which was recorded in 1983-84. The duet was with Shaheen Samad who was a prominent artist by then. At that time I had an infection on my face and grew a beard to cover that. Right after I did the duet, everyone I knew started to make fun of me saying that I only grew that beard to look older than Shaheen Samad."