“For me Tagore songs are not just songs, they come to me naturally like the sun, the wind and the water,” says the 83-year ’old’ lady in the midst of her first-ever professional singing performance in a recording studio. Mahasweta Devi, veteran writer, activist and Magsaysay Award winner sang in a trembling but free-flowing voice in the recording room of a Sound Studio in South Kolkata recently. Drik-India, the photographic collective with its head office in Dhaka, Bangladesh, had organised a shoot for its film on this great rights activist and writer.
The curtain-raiser of the documentary will be screened at Chobi Mela Vin Dhaka on the day of the inauguration of Drik’s photography festival on January 30. Chobi Mela is the biennial international festival of photography and the largest in Asia organised by Drik, Bangladesh in Dhaka. Mahasweta Devi has consented to be present on the occasion where she will be interacting live with the audience across the globe over video conference alongside Noam Chomsky and Stuart Hall.
