The Man Who Became Rabindranath Tagore
Kolkata: It’s nothing unusual to come across lookalikes of popular film stars. Many people have even etched out a career in this regard. But to look deceptively similar to India’s first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is a rarity, and Somenath Vadra, a north Kolkata resident has done just that.
Vadra’s looks are strikingly similar to Rabindranath. So much so that he dresses up as the author which makes him look almost like the real Rabindranath.
The man’s looks is what interested independent filmmaker Sayantan Sen to make a documentary on him.
“I first spotted him at the Kolkata International Book Fair this year. A person told me that he is Rabindranath Tagore. He had a crowd around him and everybody was awestruck by his looks,” Sayantan told RBN.
Vadra, however, is not alien to such adulation. He is a regular visitor to the Jorasanko Thakur Bari and has since been inducted into the managing committee of Rabindra Bharati University.
“I was a teenager, when people started saying that my looks are similar to the young Rabindranath,” Vadra told RBN. He started to grow his beard and curls at a later stage and imbibed the poet’s mannerisms.
Kharaj Mukherjee as Girish Chandra
“Wherever I go, people keep saying this to me,” Vadra said, adding that he respects the attention, courtesy one of the most popular authors in Bengal and Bangladesh. “But I am not a writer,” he clarifies with a smile.
The 57-year old BSNL employee spends his spare time reading Tagore, whose ideals, he claims to closely follow in life. He visits Jorasanko after office hours almost every day and spends a lot of time there.
Sayantan said that he has already completed shooting a major part of the documentary. The remaining part will be completed by March. The film will be released on YouTube.
Pic: Subham Maiti
