Singing Rabindrasangeet came naturally to her, but Swastika Mukherjee never thought of performing. The reason: “Stage fright.” The good news is she has finally pushed her fear aside and recorded an album, Amar Mukti Aaloy Aaloy, with father Santu Mukherjee leading the way. Swastika and Satrajit Sen, the producer, tell t2 about the Rabindrasangeet album that drops today on YouTube and other online platforms.

Did you learn Rabindrasangeet as a child?

Swastika: Singing Rabindrasangeet came naturally to me. I grew up in an atmosphere of music and for a long time I thought Rabindrasangeet is the only kind of song that existed in the universe. For my parents, Gitobitan and Jadavpur University were the main space of their relationship. We have these black-and-white pictures with my mother playing the harmonium and my father singing. Debabrata Biswas was god for my mother. As I grew older, she made sure that I learnt to sing Rabindrasangeet from every alternate page of Gitobitan. My father also did playback for films, like Parabat Priya and Dadar Kirti. In theatre and jatra, his songs were a major attraction.

What musical instruments do you have at home?

Swastika: We have the tanpura, harmonium and esraj, mom taught me how to play the tanpura. And my father learnt the esraj.... I’ve never had any formal training in singing. Rabindrasangeet would play on loop at home. Baba also took classes from Suchitra Mitra. His connection to Rabindrasangeet is so attached to my mother that he’ll avoid the entire thing.  

Satrajit: I had given her a proposal to record a Rabindrasangeet album six years ago. She said no, but I was convinced that she could do it.

Why wouldn’t you consider recording or doing playback?

Swastika: I have severe stage fright. I cannot sing in a hall full of people. But I was confident with my dance and that happened really well. I have sung songs only in telefilms in the early 2000s. Everything was sync sound in telefilms, the singing was part of the acting and happened organically....

How did you finally agree to do this Rabindrasangeet album?

Swastika: In the beginning of this year, I was in Bombay when Suman Mukhopadhyay was directing Chokher Bali. He had finalised the Tagore song, Na na go na, for it. I started humming it and then felt like recording it and sending it to someone… just to see how I sing it. Satrajit’s name came to mind. He was a safe bet, I didn’t know it would become unsafe (laughs).

Satrajit: After listening to her recording, I asked Indrajit Dey (music director for Satrajit’s film Michael) to listen to it. He got excited and created a track with Swastika’s voice and we sent the new recording back to her. And I told her that she must record a Rabindrasangeet album!

Swastika: I told him I just could not!

Satrajit: Instead she told me to write a script where the heroine gets to sing the songs.  

Swastika: The song I sent Satrajit is one of my faves, Aamar praner porey. It was there in Shwet Pathorer Thala which I had seen at Bijoli theatre, and the first thing I had done after coming back home was to learn the song. It’s complicated and long.... Then I thought that if the album is happening, I must get Baba involved. For me, it was like either we do it together or we don’t do it at all.

How did your father respond?

Swastika: That’s the thing. Who will convince my father to do the album? I have to plan in advance if I take him out to a restaurant. So imagine this!  I came back home and for two days I set up a preamble. I asked him to listen to one of my recordings and he picked a number of faults. He heard a second song and came up with a couple of observations! Finally, I told him that Satrajit had asked me to do this Rabindrasangeet album. I said, ‘Why don’t you also do it? We can sing it together. We both have our fave Tagore songs, and you are the best person to do it.’ He immediately said no. He said his voice isn’t the same anymore, that he hasn’t sung for the last five years and then ‘what’s the point in singing when your mother is not there....’ Now, I cannot argue with that. After four-five days, I started again. A debate followed. Midway Mani (Swastika’s daughter Anwesha) came in and went, ‘What’s going on in the house? Ma, why are you going on singing the same song the whole day? Why are you arguing with your father? The poor old man doesn’t want to sing, why are you forcing him?!’

The whole thing reached a crescendo, and the next morning my father suddenly tells me, ‘Bring out the Gitobitan, let’s see what I can sing.’ And he agreed to do Puja anger gaan. He finalised the song list.

What was the experience of recording like?

Swastika: Initially, Baba would start singing, stop, and in the same breath say, ‘Holo na eta!’ He recorded all his songs on the first day itself. I followed his style.

Will you sing more or do playback?

Swastika: No.

Satrajit: Yes, she will. These are works of passion. And the best thing about Swastika is that she’s so deeply involved with anything she does.

Swastika: I will not do something that I won’t be proud of.

What’s the biggest challenge when you are singing?

Swastika: You have to have that rhythm in you. Everything that I have learnt over the years helps me do something that is new for me. The musical atmosphere I grew up in has also enriched me as an actress.

You and your father also feature in a music video shot by Gairik Sarkar...

Swastika: I have been working for 15 years but I have hardly shared screen space with Baba. I did two films with him in 2008… Partner and Brake Fail. And I always have this regret that I could not share more screen space with him. While making this music video, we got to interact in front of the camera. And since people don’t think of casting us together, we are only thinking!