Remembering
Salil Chowdhury: A true genius who bridged that fine line between writing and
composing music ::one background word, voice and
soul of India.
“Salil Chowdhury was a musician proficient with themes such as
Indian Nationalism, Western Classical music and Communist Bengali songs ” .
Salil Chowdhury was a world musician in many viewpoints. Proficient with musical and non-musical themes, such as Indian Nationalism, Soviet folk songs, North Indian classical music, Western Classical music and Communist Bengali songs, Chowdhury developed a longstanding attraction to compositions for throngs of Indian audiences. Compilations of Salil Chowdhury's work such as 'Prantarer Gaan' and 'Salil Chowdhury Gaan' have become foundations for musical composition.
Early Childhood :: Seeds Of GREATNESS was sown
there iself
He spent a few years of
his childhood in the Assam tea gardens where his father was a doctor. He grew
up listening to his father's large collection of western classical music and
the folk songs of Assam and Bengal. This influenced him considerably and shaped
his musical thinking. During his university years his political ideas were fast
maturing along with his musical ideas. Living through the Second World War, the
Bengal famine and the hopeless political situation of the '40s, he became
acutely aware of his social responsibilities. This is when he joined IPTA
(Indian Peoples Theater Association) and became a member of the communist
party. IPTA, which went on to become one of the most dynamic performing art
movements in India in the 1940s and 1950s.
Salil-Da — A Life in retrospect
The son of Doctor Gyanendra Chowdhury, Salil
Chowdhury was born on 19th November 1923 in Sonarpur, Parganas. His
musical origins were familial, as his father, although a doctor, consciously
practiced his penchant for music. Salil Chowdhury was also exposed to the
tea-pickers’ nocturnal songs in Assam, where his father was employed. It was in
his elder brother, Nikhil Chowdhury, that Salil Chowdhury found the first
opportunity of expression.
Nikhil Chowdhury was the director of an
orchestra called Milan Parishad, which gave Salil
Chowdhury the exposure to instrument, composition and the finer aspects of
the orchestral opus. He caught on to the bamboo flute and was trained on the
violin and piano, which formed the core of his rudimentary work. Studying in
Calcutta, Salil experienced firsthand the tenets of Indian nationalism and the
stirring of the masses against British rule. It was during this time that he
penned his first compositions - 'Bicharpati Tomar Bichar' in 1943,
and 'Dheu Uthchhe Kara Tutchhe' in 1944. These songs, intended to
aid the Quit India Movement were both immediately banned.
Salil Chowdhury was a writer, a poet, and a
composer. Most often, he would write the lyrics to the song at the back of an
envelope, while composing its music. Salil became reputed for his anti-colonial
songs depicting the misery and apathy of poor and oppressed landless peasants.
They dealt with themes of independence, oppression and social injustice, as
against idealism and romanticism, which were flowering themes in Bengali
musical compositions of the day. In fact, Salil Chowdhury's poetry and songs
gained recognition as a subject for postgraduate Bengali students in the
Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta.
Salil Chowdhury became a founding member of
the Gana Natya Sangh, or Indian Peoples Theater Association
(IPTA). At this juncture, he composed a host of songs under the title, 'Ghum
Bhangar Gaan'. Salil worked on rendering music to Sukanta Bhattacharya's
poems, Abak Prithibi and Runner. His most notable
output from this period includes 'Hei Samalo' written for the
Tebagha Andolan in 1948, and 'Amaar Pratibader Bhasha'. Along with Ruma
Guha Thakurta, Salil Chowdhury founded the Calcutta Youth Choir, which
traversed villages in Bengal with the IPTA, singing Chowdhury’s compositions.
Salil-Da — A Life in retrospect and LIFE after the " THIRTIES " and " FORTIES and .............." FIFTIES"
During his twenties and thirties, Chowdhury had established new stylistic conventions and developed an original modus operandi, combining Western influences into his music, to generate intricate structured patterns of East and West. It is to Salil that we owe the adhunik ie " MODERN '' style of popular music in Calcutta. Logically, Salil Chowdhury graduated to writing playback, and these years mark some of the greatest compositions not only in his life, but in the variegated past of Indian music.
Salil turned out to be the leading playback
songwriter in Tollygunj, writing scores for Bengali films. Discovered by Munshi
Premkumar, he made his advent to Bombay and the world of Bollywood filmdom. For
twenty years, he contributed music to noted films such as Jagte Raho/Ek
Din Ratre, Madhumati, and Kabuliwala.
On his return to Calcutta, Salil’s compositions
were marked with a new maturity, combining conceptual ideas of a revival
movement, with catchy songs such as 'Surer Jharna' and 'Teler
Shishi'. His symbolic style caught on to Bengali theater as well, and Salil
became one of the most popular composers for a popular Bengali theater form
called Jatra.
The most interesting feature of Salil
Chowdhury's compositions in the '40s and early '50s is that he refused to
follow any definite pattern or to be confined in any category which others
could call typically Salil'. Every composition he made revealed a new face of
the composer. He reintroduced rhythm variation in the body of a single song and
departed from the accepted norms of modern Bengali song structure by writing
complex phrases of a single movement which unfolded itself sometimes over
several lines of the lyrics. In Salil's compositions, musical information in
terms of application of notes, their combinations and movements, acquired a
totally new dimension. The way in which he phrased and scanned his melody lines
along with the inner movements of the rhythms he chose, vigorously syncopated
them and relentlessly explored the possibilities of tonal expressions,
permanently changed the face of modern Bengali song. Constant experiments with
song structures have always been Salil's preoccupation - a characteristic that
sets him conspicuously apart from almost all other Indian composers.
In the '50s Salil started composing modern
Bengali songs which were so radically different in their style, lyrics and melody
that Bengalees were startled. Till then the traditional role of a composer was
just to compose a song with simple instrumental accompaniment or, at best, a
kind of instrumental respite. The lyricist was someone else. Concept of an
arranger and orchestration was not there. Salil was the first composer to
arrive as the 'total composer'. He wrote the lyrics, composed the song and
arranged the music. Salil rapidly established himself as the most talented
lyricist/composer after Tagore. All through the '50s and '60s he composed
numerous Bengali songs each one a superb composition. Lyrically and musically
they still remain unparalleled.
One unique feature of Salil's compositions was
the orchestration. Salil introduced a totally different style of orchestration with
his songs which for the first time brought in 'voicing' of musical instruments,
obbligato, counterpoints and harmony as the background and not just following
the songs melody. It introduced a richness never before experienced by the
listeners.
One of the salient features of Salil Chowdhury's
orchestration has always been his own way of using rhythms, percussion, and
percussive instruments. He clearly defines the rhythms and the rhythmic thrusts
of his songs with instruments, sometimes a whole group of instruments, more
suited to the purpose than just a Tabla which had been, for a long time, the
standard rhythm instrument used in the production of modern Bengali songs.
After the initial success with a few Bengali
films Salil's big break came with the film 'Rickshawallah', a film for which
Salil wrote the story and composed the music. Bimal Roy was so impressed with
the story that he invited Salil to Bombay to write the script of 'Do Bigha
Zameen', the Hindi adaptation of 'Rickshawallah'. As it happened, Salil ended
up composing the music of 'Do Bigha Zameen' as well. Following the
international acclaim of 'Do Bigha Zameen' Salil was firmly established in
Bombay. In the next few years Salil composed some wonderful and evergreen songs
for films like 'Biraj Bahu', 'Naukri', 'Parivar', 'Taangewaali','Awaaz', 'Jagte
Raho', 'Musafir', 'Chhaya', 'Anand' etc. His music was so completely different
and his orchestration so unique that soon he earned the title 'composer's
composer. In 1958 Salil received the Filmfare award for his monumental work in
Bimal Roy's ' Madhumati '. Even after 62 years the songs of ' Madhumati ' and its
soundtrack surprise and delight us.
By shifting his place of work from Calcutta to
Bombay in the '50s, Salil Chowdhury also moved out of phase of direct political
statement in song. It would, however, be wrong to assume that his lyrics took
leave of left-wing politics or social concerns. Moreover, despite the
preponderance of political lyrics, Salil had also written songs in which
politics was not the principal motivation. And it was this type of lyricism
that tended to prevail in his work from the '60s. Along with the changing
dimensions of his lyrics, there came newer dimensions of his music.
His exposure to wider horizons and varied
experiences in the large film world of Bombay and later south India brought
fresh challenges which he met by expanding and sharpening his compositional
capacities. This was the period in which Salil Chowdhury's modes of composition
and orchestration became more influenced by Western classical music on the one
hand, and Hindustani 'ragas' on the other. It is interesting to note the growth
of a young composer who came from rural Bengal with a flute in his hand,
leaning heavily on folk music in the beginning. That young man travelled a long
way to become almost a classicist, using wide and deep strings and horns with
movements strongly resembling those of a classical Western orchestra and, at
the same time, composing nostalgic tunes in Bageshri and Kalavati as well.
Salil Chowdhury's treatment of and compositions in several 'ragas' are as
remarkable and as uniquely his own as his experiments with Western classical
music.
Since the mid '40s, in a
career spanning over 50 years, Salil had composed over 400 Bengali basic songs
for most of which he was the lyricist. He also composed songs for over 70 Hindi
Films, around 45 Bengali films, around 26 Malayalam Films and several Tamil,
Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Assamesee , and Oriya Films. He has also
composed some memorable background music for a number of films, documentaries
and a number of TV-Serials and TV-Films. Some of his songs became immensely
popular in various parts of India in their regional language and often with
totally different orchestral arrangement. Salil brought Indians closer by
sharing the love for his songs in their own language. No other composer in
India has even come close to achieving this.
It was probably never imagined that when
director Ramu Kariat made a film about a traditional Kerala fishing community,
it would go on to become a milestone achievement of film-making and cinematic
music. Based on a story penned by Thakazhy Shivashankar Pillai, and edited by
Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Chemmeen’s music was placed in the hands of Salil
Chowdhury. It was a singularly odd combination, and a definite play against the
odds. Uncannily, this click clicked and Chemmeen and Salil
became buzzwords in Malayalam cinema. The pivotal film received the Presidents
Award in 1965, and was dubbed in Hindi as Chemmeen Lahren.
The song 'Pennale Pennale' became a
groundbreaking representation of what it meant to be a playback composer. It
became a domestic essential in every Kerala household’s radio box. Like
tamarind… To the fishermen, it was their kallu. Quite a potent mix
considering the combination. Manna Dey’s rendition of 'Manasa Mynae Varu' for Chemmeen,
was another notch in the belt for Salil Chowdhury, who was responsible for
setting it to music. Manna Dey once recalled, “Even if there is one Malayali in
the audience, he will insist that I sing that song!”
Salil Chowdhury attained his slice of the
pie in terms of recognition in South India, and went on to compose music for
more than 25 Malayalam films, apart from a host of Telugu, Kannada and Tamil
films. Based on the acclaim that Chemmeen received, Salil
Chowdhury worked with Ramu Kariat again on Ezhu Raathrikal and Karumbu.
The Written Word
“If Salil became a full time writer, we would
lose him as a composer and lose his wonderful songs, but we hope that Salil
doesn't stop writing.”
- Narayan Gangopadhaay, Bengali writer
Salil was also a writer of much acclaim. His
first Bengali short story, titled Dressing Table, was a runaway
hit, and prompted a furor of stories and plays. The thematic exploration in
works such as Sunya Puron, dealing with a midget's fight to
overcome the shortcomings of his height, became an integral part of his
writing. Chowdhury’s first play to be staged was ChaalChore, and he
went on to write scripts such as Janaantik and Sanket.
A significant literary triumph for Salil was translating the renowned Irish
play, At the Rising of the Moon into Bengali as Orunodoyer
Pathey. Another momentous work was Aapni key? Aapni Ki karen? Apni
Ki korte chaan? (Who are you? What do you do? What would you like to
do?), directed by Shekhar Chattyopadhaay, and staged by the Theater Unit of
Calcutta in 1972.
Salil’s advent into films was marked by his
first film script Rikshawalaa, written in Bengali. When Bimal Roy
saw the film, he invited Chowdhury to rewrite it in Hindi. This was none
other than the critically applauded Do Bighaa Zameen, which
established both Roy and Chowdhury as icons of the Indian screen. Pinjre
Ki Panchhi, Parakh, and Minoo followed in
their wake, and were punctuated by the Kannada film, Chinna Ninna Muddaduwe.
Chowdhury also penned a Bengali film, Ei Ritur Ak Din, which
he planned to direct himself, but it never came to life as a film.
Salil was arguably the
most versatile musician in the world of Indian cinema. To the music connoisseur
he was better known as the non-conformist music composer whose unceasing search
for perfection towered above everything else in his life. His meticulous
attention to details, a scrupulous ear for musical content and insatiable
desire for improvisation - it all remained with him till his last days. He was
in fact a composer's composer, because unlike his market-driven counterpart, he
never really set prose to music. To him the melody was sacrosanct and had to
precede the words. The situation could then be adapted.
Salil Chowdhury was one of those rare
individuals gifted with the spirit of articulation. It came to life and
manifested in a thousand different modes of expression – in the muses of
writing, music, composition, theater, film and an overall heightened sense of
creative fever. The art of the word is in the mind, and the art of music making
is in the emotion. The art of bridging these two cross platform aptitudes is
what defines the fine line between mere talent and otherworldly genius. Having
to say it in words demeans the strength of the message. The only truth that can
never fade away is the real truth – printed in black and white……………..
Salil Chowdhury will always be the one
background word, voice and soul of India.
Well , that is it
Regards and Thanks
Pics
Shyamal Bhattacharjee
Mr Shyamal
Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at
District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He
received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur
and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at
Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and
completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree
in B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA,
a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur
as a Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but
gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter
added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books
namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak
Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It
published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office
Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta in 2012. He has a
experience of about 35 years in Marketing
Signature Of Shyamal Bhattacharjee
Nicely elaborated. Truly genius. Almost all the songs remains unique, & timeless classic. No Wonder the crooks and cronies of today's film world find it hard to even copy properly
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