Ministry of Muzik is coming out with an audio-visual adaptation of Sukumar Ray's classic work of nonsense poetry Abol Tabol featuring veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee as a voice artist. The project will be released on the Ministry of Muzik’s platform on Children’s Day.
A collection of 46 titled poems and seven untitled quatrains, Abol Tabol introduced nonsense poetry to Bengali readers in 1923. The poems contain hidden satirical commentary on the contemporary colonial administration and culture. Referred to as The Weird and The Absurd in English, Abol Tabol contained subversive content in the garb of children’s poetry.
The founder and director of Ministry of Muzik, Shiladitya Choudhury, grew up reading the genius literary creation. “Abol Tabol always brings back fond childhood memories of my mother and grandmother reading to me. It has become a constant companion over the years. By presenting Abol Tabol, we tried to revive the nostalgia of childhood memories and to gift the audience a kind of classic, which is incomparably brilliant in its richness of emotions,” said Choudhury.
Chatterjee, who is recovering from COVID-19 in a private hospital, recorded all the poems in Kolkata's Film Services Studio in a span of two days. In the teaser, the actor discusses choosing two books to hold on to when he breathes his last, Gitabitan [Collection of songs by Rabindranath Tagore] and Abol Tabol.
According to Choudhury, “The Legend, Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay was the best and the only choice to recite and do justice to these works.”
Watch the teaser in the link below: