‘At a time when there was little awareness of world music, playing western tunes on eastern instruments like the flute and the dholak, blending vocal polyphony with Indian folk and contemporary styles, Salilkaku created a new musical genre in Bengal called Gana Sangeet.’
IMAGE: Vyjayanthimala in the song Aaja Re Pardesi from Madhumati.
In Salil Chowdhury’s centenary year, a name that immediately comes to mind every time you remember the poet, playwright, screenwriter, lyricist and composer is Bimal Roy. He composed some of his best songs for the filmmaker, including Do Bigha Zamin‘s Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke, the rain-drenched O Sajana, Barkha Bahar Aayee from Parakh and Madhumati‘s Aaja Re Pardesi and Suhana Safar.
The duo also had a collaborator in screenwriter Nabendu Ghosh, who befriended Chowdhury during their IPTA days in Kolkata, and like him, followed Roy to Bombay where he adapted, among many others, two Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay novels, Biraj Bahu and Devdas.
Incidentally, the music of Biraj Bahu was composed by Salil Chowdhury, who as we learn, also contributed significantly to Devdas‘ score.
Interestingly, the families of these three stalwarts were very close-knit and their children grew up together.
Speaking to Rediff Senior Contributor, Roshmila Bhattacharya, Bimal Roy’s daughters Rinki Roy Bhattacharya and Aparajita Sinha, along with their brother Joy Bimal Roy and Nabendu Ghosh’s daughter Ratnottama Sengupta, refresh memories of their Salilkaku.
“The choir had its practice sessions in our home since we lived in a sprawling bungalow, with a huge lawn in front, and my mother (Manobina Roy) was a hospitable hostess, providing endless cups of tea and Samosas. We would sit on the steps, listening to them singing. Salilkaku taught us some of the songs,” recounts Aparajita.
What are your earliest memories of the legend?
Aparajita: We didn’t think of Salilkaku as a legend. He was family, someone who dropped by frequently.
Since my father rarely spoke, the two most garrulous uncles, Hrishikaku (Hrishikesh Mukherjee) and Salilkaku were great company.
Even when he settled down in Kolkata and I moved to the city after marriage, I would visit Salilkaku and together, we would fondly remember Baba.
IMAGE: Lata Mangeshar with Salil Chowdhury. Photograph: Kind courtesy Film History Pics/Instagram
Your father’s first home production, the 1953 drama Do Bigha Zamin, was based on a short story written by him.
Aparajita: Yes, Rickshawalla, revolving around a farmer who desperately pulls a rickshaw through the streets of Kolkata to earn the Rs 235 needed to save his two acres of land in the village.
While Hrishikaku is credited with the screenplay, I have heard from Nabendukaku that there were two writing teams working simultaneously on Parineeta and Do Bigha Zamin.
In the case of Devdas too, before the script was started, they had long meetings at which even Dilip Kumar, who played Devdas, was present.
My father respected each and every person he worked with so their opinions mattered and he would not take a single step without consulting others around him.
Dilip Kumar would say, ‘Bimalda was a conference-oriented man.’
You can see from the films the tremendous synergy that must have flowed between all of the collaborators.
Do Bigha Zamin had some lovely songs composed by Salil Chowdhury.
Rinki: Yes, I remember the delicate lori Aaja Ri Aa Nindiya Tu Aa sung by Lataji (Lata Mangeshkar).
It was filmed on Meena Kumari, the thakurain, who helps Nirupa Roy’s Parvati write letters to her husband when he moves to the city, in what was perhaps her only special appearance.
She did not charge even a rupee.
The song was recorded at Mumbai’s Ranjit Studio, at 4 am.
It became a muse for the lullabies that followed in later films.
Ratnottama: Even the film’s first song, Hariyala Sawan Dhol Bajata Aaya, celebrating welcome showers after a long period of drought, has inspired similar songs, including Lagaan‘s Ghanan Ghanan, as admitted by its director Ashutosh Gowarikar.
IMAGE: Balraj Sahni and Ratan Kumar in the song Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke from Do Bigha Zamin.
In a radio interview, the composer himself acknowledged that the tune of Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke, based on raag Bhairavi, which made singer Manna Dey a household name, was inspired by a marching song of Russia’s Red Army.
Ratnottama: Salilkaku was an active member of the Communist Party of India.
After taking part in the peasant rising of 1943, he had to hide in the paddy fields of Sunderbans to evade arrest.
My father wasn’t associated with the Communist party, but he was a part of its cultural wing, IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association).
That was where he befriended Salilkaku who was one of the first members of IPTA, doing plays with Mrinal Sen’s wife Gita Sen and Utpal Dutt’s wife Shobha Sen.
In 1958, the Bombay Youth Choir, India’s first secular choir, was started with Salil Chowdhury as its composer and conductor. Any memories of the choir?
Aparajita: The choir had its practice sessions in our home since we lived in a sprawling bungalow, with a huge lawn in front, and my mother (Manobina Roy) was a hospitable hostess, providing endless cups of tea and Samosas.
We would sit on the steps, listening to them singing.
Salilkaku taught us some of the songs, many of which, like Tu Zinda Hai, had a nationalistic ring.
I still remember the sOng.
(Humming) Tu Zinda Hai Toh Zindagi Ki Jeet Mein Yakeen Kar, Agar Kahin Hai Swarg Toh Utaar La Zameen Par…
IMAGE: Hema Malini in the song Allah Megh De Pani De in Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein.
The song was recorded with Sonu Nigam and Arijit Singh, with due credit to Salil Chowdhury and lyricist Shailendra, for Srijit Mukherjee’s 2024 biographical drama on Mrinal Sen, Padatik.
Ratnottama: At a time when there was little awareness of world music, playing western tunes on eastern instruments like the flute and the dholak, blending vocal polyphony with Indian folk and contemporary styles, Salilkaku created a new musical genre in Bengal called Gana Sangeet.
Songs like Abaak Prithibi and Gayer Badhu are rooted in political and social consciousness.
Aparajita: I remember Brishti Pore Tapur Tupur, a Bengali children’s rhyme, which Salilkaku turned into a patriotic ditty.
Also, O Bhai Re Bhai, depicting the lives of peasants during the 1943 famine in Bengal, which he witnessed first-hand.
Ratnottama: Gana sangeet evolved into jibon mukhi gaan with songs like Palki Chole and Runner eulogising the common man who tirelessly toils for a living.
Even Do Bigha Zamin‘s Ajab Tori Duniya underlines the woes of the migrant worker, who leaves behind his home in the village to build mansions for the rich in beautiful cities, but never gets to embrace this world.
You see the impact of these songs which had a social conscience on the music of Anjan Dutta, Nachiketa, Kabir Suman and Bhupen Hazarika.
Even the recent Benche Thakar Gaan can be traced back to Salilkaku.
Aparajita: That reminds me of an encounter with Bhupen Hazarika in Shillong…
Go on, we would love to hear more.
Aparajita: After Baba’s sudden demise, my mother sunk into a long period of depression.
Wanting to snap out of it for our sake, she whisked mejh di (sister Yashodhara), Joy and me off on a vacation.
In Darjeeling, we ran into Satyajit Ray and his wife Bijoya, who were staying in the room right next to ours in the same hotel.
We would meet every morning on the lawn for tea and adda.
We then toured Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, finally reaching our hotel in Shillong.
There we learnt, to our dismay, that there were no rooms available since several local bigwigs had come down for a conference to discuss the formation of a new state, Meghalaya.
Fortunately, Bhupen Hazarika walked in just then, and being a big name in Assam, immediately got us rooms.
He also graciously insisted on driving around with us and showing us the sights.
Maa, remembering how we used to sing during similar drives to Lonavala, Matheran and Mahabaleshwar, told him I sang very well.
He immediately urged me to sing, and whichever song I picked, he would say, ‘That’s my song!’
That surprised me because Salilkaku had taught them to me and I had always thought of them as his songs.
It was only later that I understood that many of them, like Allah Megh De Pani De, are rooted in folk songs, and were later adapted by composers like Salilkaku and Bhupen Hazarika.
IMAGE: Sadhana and Basanta Choudhury in Parakh.
S D Burman also used Allah Megh De in Dev Anand’s film Guide while Laxmikant-Pyarelal recorded it over a decade later, in 1977, for the Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini starrer, Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein.
Joy: Since we are on the subject of my mother, she decided, in 1979, to revive our home banner, Bimal Roy Productions, with a film that Basuda (Rinki’s ex-husband, director Basu Bhattacharya) was to direct.
Themahurat shot was taken on the two heroes, Vijendra Ghatge and Benjamin Gilani.
Salilkaku was given the responsibility of adapting the adventure novel revolving around two young men which Maa had read and wanted to bring to the screen.
Aparajita: Maa was a voracious reader and I’ve inherited her love for thrillers.
I remember Tiger by the Tale, a 1954 James Hadley Chase novel.
It’s about a banker who meets a sex worker in a bar, and since his wife is away, goes home with her, right?
Aparajita: Yes, she is murdered the same night, in her apartment by an unknown assailant with an ice pack, and the banker has to flee not just the cops, but politicians and gangsters too.
Salilkaku was a wonderful raconteur and one afternoon, he sat on our sunny portico, with us perched on the stairs, and narrated Tiger by the Tale without a single pause.
For an hour-and-a-half, he had us entranced, his narration so vivid that it was like watching a film play out.
How incredible! Joy, what was the film you mentioned your mother was producing?
Joy (Sighing): Unfortunately, for some reason, it never took off.
Salilkaku, who was the music director too, had even recorded a song which never released.
Rinki: One of my favourite songs from Parakh, composed by Salilkaku, who also wrote the story and screenplay, also didn’t make it to the album because the record label HMV was shut at the time.
But it’s there in the 1960 film, beautifully sung by Lataji, and filmed on Sadhana.
Her character, Seema, is upset because her parents are fixing her match with another man when she is secretly in love with the village schoolmaster and opens her heart, crooning, Mere Man Ke Diye, Yuhi Ghut Ghut Ke Jal Tu Mere Ladle.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
