Chandrabati Roy Burman, centre, presents mystic Radharaman's songs on Saturday at Shilpakala Academy.– Snigdha Zaman

The houseful audience got the essence of the traditional mystic songs and the raw flavour of the soil in the splendid performance of veteran baul singer Chandrabati Roy Burman on Saturday at the Music and Dance Centre of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
The octogenarian singer Chandrabati Roy Burman, a torchbearer of the baul music genre of the north-east region, made the audience spellbound with her rendition of a number of songs by legendary bard Radharamon Dutta.
The jam-packed presence of the urban audience at the auditorium proves their thirst for the authentic traditional music which only can be delivered by such a performer who was born and brought up at the place where the great bard Radharamon Dutta was born.
Chandrabati took her music lesson from her grandmother Rajeshwari Dutta, who was a direct disciple of the legendary bard.
The seasoned singer won the hearts of the audience from her very first performance of the popular Radharaman’s song Shyam tumi ayo na kaney.
Being moved by her ‘rustic and raw’ performance, the audience requested Chandrabati to continue the show alone. 
Celebrated singer Bishwajit Roy, of Radha Raman Shangskriti Chorcha Kendra, also performed Radharamon songs such as Aaij kenore praner subal, Ore o roshik naiya and Amarey ashibar katha koiya at the programme.
The mastery of the experienced singer’s voice modulation while presenting Aj keno pran kendey kendey uthey rey created a melancholic wave at the auditorium. She just enthralled the audience with soulful presentation of Radharamon’s melancholic numbers like Amar bondhu doyamoy, Subal mondo ar bolish na tora, Ami udashi hoilam jar lagiya go, Ami krishna kothaye pai go and others.
Her soothing voice was so heart catching and dominating that at final stage of the live concert Chandrabati Roy Burman was requested by audience to sing without any instrument so that they could completely indulge in beauty of her voice.
And the wizard of Radharamon genre guided the audience to feel the ecstasy by presenting E jiboner moto bujhi hoilam go pranonath bondhuhara. At the end the audience cheered her with repeated applauses.    
The programme was a part of the regular fortnight musical programme arranged by Bangladesh Sangeet Sangathan Samannay Parisad to pay tribute to legendary bard Radha Raman Dutta (1833-1915), a leading composer of mystic songs of the greater Sylhet region, who was highly influenced by Vaisnavism.