Amaay Bolbe ki
Anasua Chowdhury
Prime Music; Rs 42

Meaningful lyrics, good music and a great voice, make this album reminiscent of Bengali modern songs of the golden era. Anasua Chowdhury has a mellifluous voice and she sings with a passion that is enough to pump life into the numbers. Numbers like Chhotto moton kalpanake and Aaj akashe are praiseworthy.

rimjhim brishti
Pallab Ghosh
Prime Music; Rs 42

Raindrops, clouds, rivulets and the vast horizon are elements that touch a poet’s heart and when they are the contents set to tune, the outcome is usually entertaining. Rimjhim Brishti has some great lyrics by Gautam Ghoshal, Amitava Samajpati and Soumya Basu. Singer Pallab Ghosh could have been a bit more versatile in presenting the variety of numbers.

hoyto tomar jonyo
Shamik Sinha
Prime Music; Rs 42

The numbers are truly modern in terms of lyrics and music and will probably appeal to those who have an ear for new age beats. Shamik Sinha’s voice is quite ordinary, but he lives up to the otherwise mundane lyrics.

Kothae o sure
Salil Choudhury
Asha Audio; CD Rs 45

One of the greatest musical geniuses of all times who set the 50s and 60s rocking to his offbeat music and lyrics, Salil Choudhury is an all-time favourite. Kothae Sure has his numbers sung by his daughter Antara Choudhury, and Bhaswati Ghosh, and the legendary Lata Mangeshkar number Jago Mahanopritam sung by Sudeshna Ganguly. Undoubtedly a collector’s pride.

Saheli Mitra

Bhushandir Mathe
Script-Direction: Kharaj Mukhopadhyay
Sagarika; Rs 40

Even Rajsekhar Basu alias Parashuram wouldn’t have thought his satirical story Bhushandir Mathe could turn into this song and dance drama. But, alas, in Kaliyug anything could happen and Parashuram should have known that. The songs all imported into the original text are needless. If Bhushandir Mathe indeed had to be dramatised (and we’re quite sure it has been a number of times), it could well be done without these additions. And for the uninitiated, please read the original story before you hear this or you’ll be forever prejudiced against Parashuram!

Anasuya Basu

Pongkhira
Sangita Bhattacharya
Raga; CD Rs 60

Pongkhira is an assorted collection of modern Bengali songs that attempts shades of folk and Urdu qawwali in the songs. A couple of songs are about food, which is rather interesting. But the recording seems a bit stilted. Overall, however, the songs are melodious and entertaining. As a general Adhunik album it achieves its raison d’etre, but the video experiment is out of place and does precious little to enhance the quality of the album.

Shubhobroto Ghosh

Neel Chander Aloye
Amrita Dutta
Prime Music; Rs 42

Amrita Dutta has a nice voice and the songs she sings are quite pleasurable listening. Most of the songs are composed by Debashish Ganguly and Joy Sarkar. The song Ki hobe aar has been set to music by Srikanta Acharya while there is Ekta gaan abhijaan, quite a rhythmic score, by Rupankar. Nodire nodire is one of the best compositions in this album. The album is a nice mix of slow and fast numbers and Amrita does a good job in showcasing her range.

Madhuparna Das