Tanmoy Bose

Tanmoy Bose’s tabla has taken a backseat to give the dhak a chance in actress-turned-director Satabdi Roy’s third film Dhaki.

Starring Tapas Pal and Satabdi herself, the film traces the life of a dhaki. Tanmoy is focussing on the “heady beats of the dhak and authentic folk sounds” that he feels will create frenzied rhythms needed for such a protagonist.

“I tried using some global strains at first but it didn’t work. Unlike Anuranan, which was an urban contemporary story, Dhaki belongs to a different time zone. It’s set in the rural area. I couldn’t fit in foreign instruments,” says Tanmoy on his second film as music composer after Anuranan last year.

The percussionist has infused sounds of traditional wind and string instruments like the flute, shehnai, sarod and sitar with predominant beats of the dhak and dhol. Four dhakis from the Bangladesh border, who accompany Tanmoy to his concerts, have drummed up a beat for Satabdi’s film. But Tanmoy has spiked the sound design with a bit of tambourine, djembe and cyclops.

In keeping with the mood of the film, Tanmoy has composed three tracks for Dhaki, apart from the background score.

“Two of the songs are modern Bangla songs with a Hemanta-Manna feel that Srikanta (Acharya) has sung. The third one is a folk song by Swapan Basu and Amit of band Dohar. Ritika Sahni has sung a few lines for a character who is a city-based singer,” adds Tanmoy, who is experimenting with jazz and Baul for his forthcoming album Baul & Beyond, due for release in November.

But the project that’s keeping Tanmoy on his toes for the rest of August is a series of farewell concerts by Pandit Ravi Shankar. Tanmoy joins the maestro for the US and Europe leg of the tour.