The songs of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam have always remained more popular in Bangladesh than other genres of music. These songs have distinct characteristics: Rabindra Sangeet bears sensitive lyrics that express major human feelings of love and desire, loneliness and dejection. On the other hand, Nazrul Sangeet also contains wonderful lyrics that are putinto classical-basedmelody.

However, apart from these two pioneer musicians, the 1940s-1950s also witnessed the remarkable feats in music, accomplished by three other poets--Dwijendralal Roy, Rajanikanta Sen and Atulprasad Sen. The five bards are referred to as Pancha Bhashkar (five meteors), for they ushered in an era of Bangla music that has lost none of its impact on the average Bangali.

The Dhaka unit of National Rabindra Sangeet Conference Committee organised a musical

soiree featuring the songs of these five poets at Bengal Shilpalaya on June 4. Mainly emphasising on the latter three, the aim of the event was to popularise their songs alongside those of Rabindranath and Nazrul.

A lot of people gathered at the venue to enjoy the songs. In fact, some had to stand outside, since there weren’tenoughspaceinside.

The soiree started with a group rendition of a Nazrul Sangeet, Dao shourjo dao dhoirjo. Later songs of Atulprasad and Dwijendralal were presented. Atulprasad’s songs included Tumi kobey ashibey, Amay khoma koriyo, Dakey koyela

barey barey and Prokritir ghomtakhani khullo. Songs of Dwijendralal included Aji notun ratoney, Eki modhur chhondey, Bela boye jaay and others.

Rabindra Sangeet presented at the event were Jiboney amar joto ananda, Jaowa-ashar eki khela, Ami tokhon chhilem magon, Arup tomarbanietc.

Performers included renowned artistes like Mita Haque, Sumon Chowdhury, Bulbul Islam, Sharmin Shathi Islam, Aditi Mohsin, Nasima Shahin as well as a number of aspiring singers.