Big B?s tryst with poetry

Big B's rich baritone will accompany danseuse Tanusree Shankar's dance drama Chirantan.

Amitabh Bachchan's rich baritone will accompany famous danseuse Tanusree Shankar's dance drama Chirantan as he recites poems from Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali this winter.

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Chirantan, Shankar promises, would not be a run-of-the-mill dance drama, but an inspired ode to modern-day life in its most inglorious self and its final redemption in peace and love.

"Amitabh Bachchan has done the narration for us," said Shankar, who described Chirantan as "a simple composition that brings alive the situation that we live in".

Using Tagore's Nobel winning collection of poetry and songs, the dance drama would be broken into sections to capture the emotions of conflict and those of peace and love. "Caught in conflict and hankering for peace - this is the situation we live in," Shankar said.

Bachchan, who has been close to the Shankar family, apparently agreed to accept the project because of his love for poetry, which runs in his family.

Being the son of famous Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and a friend of the Shankars, Bachchan recorded for the project in a Mumbai studio.

The dance drama will be staged in auditoriums across the country in December.