Salil Chowdhury: Of Men and Music

Remember the misra Khamaj strain in “Na Jeyona”, the Beehu refrain in 'Jago Mohano Pritomo Jago”, the Slavic take- off in “Dil Tadap Tadap” or the Mozart mukhda in “Itna Mujhe Se To” ? Here is one composer, amongst a select few, who could fuse the oriental with the occidental, the folk with the classical, to write music of a matrix typically his own -- Salil Chowdhury.

When Bimal Roy in 1953 rolled a “De Sica” film with his “Do Bigha Zamin”, few people knew that a portion of this great film belonged to this effervescent Babu from Assam. He had earlier handed over to Bimal Roy a few sheets of paper, his short story “Rickshawallah”, with its puissant, left leaning, humanitarian message. Little did the film world realize that Salil, also the music director and screenplay writer of the film, was soon to emerge as one of the greatest composers of the sub continent. Till then, he was confined to the musical environment of Kolkata, just an angry young composer of fiery “gono sangeet” which he composed for Indian Peoples' Theatre Association (IPTA) and some numbers for films and other purposes.

Inspired by Hemanga Biswas and Binoy Roy, Salil had joined the leftist movement in the forties, when he also came in touch with Hemanta, Debarata Biswas and Suchitra Mitra. But difference of opinion with the leaders and, eventually, disillusionment, led him to leave Kolkata for Mumbai. It didn't take long for Salil to make his mark in the Indian Hollywood, attaining new heights with such perennial airs as “Aei Mere Pyare Watan”, “Zindagi Khwab Hai”, “Aaja Re”. He swept Calcutta with “Dhitang Dhitang Bole”, “Aai Brishti JheNpey”, “Prantarero Gaan Aamar”, “Teler Sishi Bhangley Boley”, “Surero Ei Jhar Jhar Jharna”, propelling Manna Dey, Mukesh, Lata, Hemanto, Sandhya, Utpala, Bani Ghoshal and Sabita Chowdhury to their creative peak.

As a master of orchestra he had brought in a revolution, proving that the world was a musical stage and all the men and women were choral players. Those were the days in Bombay when Anil Biswas, C. Ramchandra, Naushad, SD Burman, Sajjad Hussain, Madan Mohan, Roshan, O.P. Nayyar and others had hit the screen with their own school of music. Salil countered them with his orchestra and scale progression. Critics often said that Salil made a song unnecessarily difficult and did not adhere to the rules of music. “In order to defy the rules of music one must first have a thorough mastery over them and to me nobody understands the grammar of music better than Salil Chowdhury.” This was the “Azam” composer, Naushad Ali's, assessment of Salil Chowdhury.

Bangla, Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Assamese, Oriya, Marathi, Kannada -- you name it, Salil was everywhere with his music. Language was never a barrier. His control over the language of music was so much that he was chosen to team up with the late King Mahendra's maiden effort as a lyricist for a Nepali film, despite the fact that he did not know a word of Nepali!

Most of Salil's finest melodies circled around Lata. It is said that Salil and Lata used to gaze far out, along the strips of Marine Drive, gathering inspiration to produce countless, arresting, Hindi and Bangla numbers. And for songs outside films, after Lata, he always had for Hemanto something special, like “Pathey Ebar Namo Sathi”, “Moner Janalo Diye”, “Duranto Ghurni”. And let us not forget Hemanto's “GaNyer Bodhu”, “Palki”, and “Runner”!! Along with Anil Biswas, he tapped the “timbre” in Mukesh's voice to produce such collector's delights as “Suhana Safar”, “Maine Tere Liye”, “Mon Matal SaNj Sakal”.

Salil spent the golden part of his career in Bombay, writing music for “thinking listeners” throughout his career. The big wigs of the film industry could never dictate to him to copy western tunes as his fascinating blend of the east and west silenced them once and for all.

A short story writer, a lyricist and a music director, here was a champion. After Kazi Nazrul Islam, has there been any one like him? His background music in films put him on a different platform from his contemporaries. He “scored” without Tagore's influence of any kind and struck new grounds with his unorthodox and uncanny musical creations.

The non conformist composer who set forth with songs like “O Alor Pathojatri”, “Hei Shamalo Dhan Ho”, “Aamar Protibader Bhasha” left us on September 05, 1995.

From Suman-Nachiketa to band music; Bappi Lahiri-AR Rahman to Himesh Remshamaiya, music has not been the same.