Rituparna Sengupta with Tejendranarayan Majumdar. Picture by Aranya Sen

A storm rages outside, lashing the trees with blinding rain. Two lovers in a jungle cabin. The woman?s son storms out into the darkness, heart-broken. A series of cut shots captures the drama of the moment. In the background, a solitary cello plays to a flute accompaniment. A soothing, low key, soon to be drowned by the storm. Then, a sarod starts playing, full of the pathos of Raga Megh.

The deft fingers on the strings are of Pandit Tejendranarayan Majumdar. ?I have played both the alaap and the jhala, one bringing out the grief in the boy?s heart and the other the turbulence of the physical union. Both strains are played simultaneously, one coming to the foreground over the other, matching the scene on the screen,? Majumdar elaborates, running the background score of the film Sangshay on his laptop.

This is Majumdar?s first music composition on the big screen. Explaining his reason for choosing a classical musician over industry names, director Saibal Mitra says: ?A knowledge of only what goes as film music today would not have sufficed for my work (based on Narendranath Mitra?s story). Sensibilities of the director and the composer have to match for the music to succeed.?

The likes of Pandit Ravi Shankar and Majumdar?s gurus Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Bahadur Khan have scored the music for films, as have modern masters Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and Ustad Zakir Hussain. But the dabbling of classical musicians in film music still draws frowns from the fraternity.

?When I took up my first assignment for a documentary in 2002, people said I was looking for easy money and would lose my touch,? says Majumdar, who would quote a steep fee to keep the filmi world at bay. But he is hardly apologetic about a celluloid score.

?It is a question of grasping another school of music where one has to create an effect in a half-minute piece, a far cry from the three hours we get to bring a raga to fruition. If one has the ability, why shouldn?t one experiment??

Rabindrasangeet has been interpreted to meld with the film?s theme? apprehension. ?In a clash of cloistered old-world mores and a modern liberal worldview, which way does one go? That is the question Rituparna Sengupta, the central character, faces,? says director Mitra.

As the approaching fog of uncertainty gradually engulfs everything, the prelude in violin, cello, flute, oboe and tympany reaches a crescendo. The camera tilts skyward and a song starts? Bahira pothey bibagi hiya. It is the music that delivers the final message.